Blind Colors
by mayemerald9
Summary: Avra Doro. Aura Gift. Very straightforward and very wrong. Her powers were no gift, they had ruined her life. Avra Doro joins the team soon after it's founding, bringing calamity, humor, and a boatload of danger to the cave. She can cope with her losses, easy! Adapting to an odd blind life? She's been doing it for years. Survive this whole new 'hero' thing? Ha, don't make me laugh.
1. Prologue

I rubbed the inside of the sleeve, feeling the small, worn patch of cotton.

_'Lacy gray top- long sleeved, about three years old and filled with holes_.'

Shifting the meager supply of clothing around in the closet, I searched for the article with the matching patch, pulling it off the hanger and running my fingers over it.

'_Black denim, extremely worn, zipper rusting and frayed patches at the knees.'_

Shuffling awkwardly to the left, I saw the outline of my dresser, and the soft lump of my gloves resting on top of it. Simultaneously slipping them on and hopping back towards the closet, I reached for my boots with my toes, fumbling to get them on without using my hands.

Finally, I shrugged my leather jacket over my shoulders, reveling in the small amount of warmth the material provided.

_'Completely covered. Good,' _

I thought, turning on my heel and counting my steps to the door. Opening it slowly, I made my way into what I knew to be a dank hallway, with chipped plaster walls, mucky carpets that were probably filled with mildew and bugs, and several other doors, all made with the same rotten wood as the one I had just come from.

Gotta love home.

I raced down the hall, trying not to touch the walls too much, speeding down the stairs two at a time.

_Creak, creak, creak, _

they all went, every single one of them. The wood would definitely collapse eventually, as the railing already had.

I smirked at the thought, turning around another corner.

_'That's how I'll die,' _

I snickered mentally. '

_It'll either be a huge explosion, or falling down the stairs.'_

It wasn't all that unlikely either, being blind and all.

Oh, did I forget to mention that?

My name is-

"Avra!" Thank you, Danielle.

Yes, that would be me, Avra Doro. The basic run through? Well, I was skittish, quick to anger, adorable (citation needed), and completely, hopelessly blind since birth. Well, not _completely _hopelessly; I had this little ability, it was really just _special._

If you can't tell by my tone, I hated it and would much rather have been born without it.

I could see auras, and that was about it. You'd think that would be cool, right? No. Surprisingly, only being able to see blinding balls of colorful light was not as cool as it would seem. Of course, I could see the outlines of buildings and such, I wasn't completely helpless. But it was kind of extremely hard to get anything done when you couldn't see the wall in front of you, or tell when the streetlight says 'Go!'

Oh, there's another thing for the 'How I'm Going to Die' list. Getting hit by a car.

The charming young woman who so rudely interrupted me just a moment ago was Danielle Ellis, a sassy asshole with a mind the size of Texas. That girl could hack into the White House and change all of their screensavers into cats if she wanted to, and the world was very lucky that she didn't. She could very easily lose me in a lecture about computer algorithms and how to program your average nano robot.

Needless to say, next to Danielle I had the exact mental capacity of a can of tuna.

"Hey, what are you- woah now!" Her blinding orange aura jumped out at me, catching me around the shoulders before I could face-plant on the last step. Good ole' Danielle, probably the only reason I was still alive.

"Thanks," I said, brushing myself off. "What were you saying?"

"What are you planning on doing today?" She replied, not missing a beat. Grabbing my hand- the gloves were still on, right? Oh, yeah, good...- she pulled me out the front of the condemned apartment.

"Well, I think we're getting a little low on food, don't you? So I figured we'd go looking for spare change again, and this time not waste it on a cheap new battery for your cell phone." I glared pointedly at her while saying this, deliberately being about as subtle as a train wreck.

"Hey! I would prefer to have actual contact with the outside world and make sure that, I don't know, Russia and Germany aren't waging nuclear war or something."

"Then walk down the street, turn on a radio maybe. That iPhone is like five years old, if you're gonna spend money on it, just buy a new one." I'm sure she was rolling her eyes, I didn't have to see to know that.

"With what money, Avra?" She was silent for a moment, perfectly content to leave it at that if it weren't for, "Five steps till the curb, twenty seconds to walk."

We made our way through the shining throng of people, heading to the grocery that was about two blocks away. When we arrived, Danielle left me sitting outside so that she could pick out an edible and

affordable combination of canned goods. We had learned from my last shopping experience that sometimes if the can is labeled sausage, it doesn't taste like sausage, and if the can says beans, it's really tasteless mush that costs twice as much as the other brands. Not like I knew I had spent more than half of our budget in one trip for food that could only barely be called food.

I was fine sitting on the bench, though. I liked to spend my time analyzing the passing pedestrians' auras. At first, they all looked blurred white, but I think that's only because I wasn't deliberately focusing on them. Sometimes if someone has a really strong aura it will show through at a glance, but it's really rare.

'_Deep red, very dim. Realistic, likes a challenge, survival oriented._

'_Dirty gray, overlapping a soft magenta. Artistic, usually resourceful, but probably ill. Maybe the doctor's office is in that direction?_

'_Brown, greedy and self absorbed. Avoid him._

'_Pastel? Ooh, haven't seen one of those in a while. Has a need for peace, very sensitive._

'_Murky pink, immature and dishon-'_

"Hey!" I shouted. The jerk with the murky pink aura pushed me off of the bench, somehow managing to tug the leather jacket off of my shoulders before running away.

_'Wha-_ _asshole!' _

I mentally screamed, picking myself off the ground and launching after the man. That jacket was, is, and always will be my version of a comfort blanket. It may have been about fifteen years old and three sizes too big, but it had belonged to my mother before me, and was the only thing I had left of her. I definitely wasn't going to lose it to some scum-bag who robbed people in front of Ingles to make a living.

"Get back here you bastard!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, even though it wasn't really necessary. All I really had to do was home in on the trail his aura left, and follow it before it faded away.

And that's what I did, I tailed the guy for six whole blocks before he gave out, dropping to his knees and gasping for air. Now that I got a closer look at him, he seemed a bit overweight for street-chases. I was surprised he'd held out that long.

Snatching my coat and securing it around my shoulders once again, I kicked the man in the side and walked away, shouting, "You deserved that!"

After walking about half a block in the wrong direction, I realized I had no idea where I was. Great. Danielle was the only one with a cell phone, and the chip was gone so she couldn't call anyone anyway. Reading a map was out of the question- duh- and my aura trail had faded already, so I had no idea where I had come from. None of the people around me were being helpful either, they just bumped into me from all sides, probably having jobs and families and actual lives to get to. None of them noticed the blind girl in the middle of the sidewalk, who was slowly beginning to panic as her claustrophobia and her nerves ganged up on her.

Someone got me in the shoulder, and I was on the pavement again. My glove ripped on impact, along with the knees of my jeans.

_'No, no, no, nonono, this cannot be happening, nonononono-'_

Then, out of the crowd of endless white, a bright, soft blue appeared, heading right towards me. The boy- Man? Teenager? I couldn't tell- held out a hand, and he was probably smiling behind that glow as he said,

"Pardon me, but are you in need of some assistance?"


	2. Chapter 1: Primary Encounter

**Here's chapter 1!**  
_'Thoughts'_  
"Speech"

_"Pardon me, but are you in need of some assistance?"_

Central City  
July 9, 13:11 CDT

All I could see in front of me was brown, deep, muddy brown. It surrounded me, laughing evilly as I struggled to stand_. _Suddenly I wasn't in the middle of the street, I was a little girl in an alley judging by the extreme smell and lack of space. There were two people in front of me, both with a horrible mixture of murky brown and pink for their auras, the worst of the worst. The men advanced and I retreated, until I hit the wall and my vision returned to normal.

There were no men, I wasn't in any alleyway. It was just me and this blue guy getting trampled on a busy sidewalk.

"Miss?" A voice snapped me out of my thoughts, low and smooth. "Miss, are you alright?" Oh, right, blue boy here wanted to help me.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," I replied quietly, my personality completely shifting. The boy offered a hand to help me stand, which I reluctantly took. As soon as I was back on my feet, however, my hands were shoved in my pockets. "Thanks." The boy tilted his head curiously, before putting his hand down at his side. No siree, no handshakes for you today.

"Are you alright, miss? You seem quite shaken." Yes, I was very lost and very scared, but I wasn't about to admit it.

"I-I'm fine, just a bit disoriented." I paused, debating whether or not to show a little humility and ask for help. _'Screw it,' _I thought. _'There's no way I'll be able to find my way back, and who else is nice enough to help?' _"You wouldn't happen to know what direction the Ingles is, would you?"

"The one across from the Sugar Cafe?" I nodded. "Yes, in fact I was just walking in that direction."

_'Oh no, I can already see where this is going...' _I thought, my heart sinking into my stomach.

"Would you like me to walk you there?"

_'No. Not at all, really.'_

"Sure, why not?" Crap. Did I really say that? Well, Blue was turned like he was waiting for me to follow, so I guess I did. Joy...

"I believe it is in this direction," he said, gesturing to the left. I walked up beside him, keeping my hands firmly stuffed in the bottoms of my jacket pockets as I did. I relaxed slightly- _slightly- _seeing how his aura was about the softest blue I'd ever seen. Loyal, calm, patient, honest, truthful, intuitive, generous. Just a few words I could use to describe his shade of blue. "My name is Calvin Durham, it is a pleasure to meet you. You are?" Well, scratch that. There goes my trust in nice people, I'll never be able to talk to strangers again.

As soon as the lie came out of his mouth, 'Calvin's' aura flashed dark murky pink, mirroring the thief's. Lies. I hate liars. Why would you lie about your own name?

"Avra. Nice to meet you too," I answered curtly. "How many blocks away are we?"

"Four, I believe. May I ask why you are in such a hurry?" _'No. Lemme 'lone, creeper.'_

"I left a friend at the store, she'll get worried if I'm not there when she leaves."

"Ah. In that case, shall we go faster?" I obliged, matching his pace as we sped down the street. We were in somewhat comfortable silence for a few moments, until I was an idiotic blind girl and tripped over my feet at the third curb.

"Crap!" I shouted, bracing for impact and bringing an arm up to shield my face. The ground never came, the warm hands around my waist keeping me from a painful faceplant. If I hadn't been so grateful I'm sure that 'Calvin' would have had a nice black eye right about then.

"Oh... t-thanks..." I mumbled, righting myself and not looking at Blue's face.

"You are welcome." His aura glowed with something, I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw the light dusting of indigo around his temples. Intuitive and perceptive? What could he be realizing at that very moment- "Pardon me asking, but are you visually impaired, Avra?"

Oh.

"Y-yeah, what's it to ya?" I replied nervously, I didn't like where this was going.

"Nothing, I just wasn't aware. You must be very good at overcoming your disability if you can be about without a dog or cane." We started walking again, and I wasn't sure whether to be bothered or flattered by his comment.

"Thanks, I guess? I usually have Danielle with me to tell me when the curb comes up though."

"Oh? Well, there are about twenty-five steps until you reach the street corner," he replied.

At this point, my inner trustingishness was very, very confused. How could someone be so, so nice and considerate and well-mannered, and lie about their own name? It was absolutely disorienting.

"So-"

"AVRA!" Blue was cut off by Danielle, who appeared out of nowhere and immediately glomped me. "Where the heck have you been, doofbarg, I searched the whole fricken block for you?!" she shouted after letting me stand again.

"Well you see I-"

"Hey, Kaldur!" some boy shouted from down the road. I saw Kaldur shaking his head at them before turning back to a fuming Danielle, who's orange aura was mucked up in various areas with dark, muddy red.

"Hey, don't look so angry, Ellis, you look like a pile of flaming oranges right about now," I told her, smirking as rage quickly faded into minor annoyance.

"Yeah, screw you too Doro. Why'd you run off, anyway?"

"Some jerk stole my coat." That was really all I needed to say for her to get the picture.

"Hey Kal, what's up? And who are the chicks?" the boy from earlier, now close enough that I could see the blinding yellow of his aura, said to Blue, a light pink overlay appearing. Oh dear god, please not _another _flirt...

"Chicks? Call me that again, ginger, I dare you," Danielle said, just as yet another boy with a deep red aura appeared, holding Yellow's arms behind his back.

"Down girl," I said to my friend, the angry red having returned in a heartbeat. "Calvin, this is Danielle. Whatever insults she might hurl at your ginger friend-" don't think I don't listen, doofbarg. "-she really means 'nice to meet you.'" Calvin- Kaldur- too many names! Let's just go with Blue. _Blue _chuckled, holding out his hand for Danielle to shake, and then gesturing to his friends.

"These two are Wally and Rob." Okay, Red and Yellow are Rob and Wally. Good to know.

"It's a pleasure," I said to the two. "Well, sorry to do this Blue, but I gotta fly before Ellis here rips my head off. See you again some time?"

"Possibly, I am just visiting today. I do hope to meet you again, it has been a pleasure."

Now, here are some very important questions.

Am I amnesiac? No.

Did I suffer some sort of head injury on the walk there? Don't think so, no.

Am I a complete and total idiot? Absolutely.

So, what exactly did I do too come to this conclusion? I shook the boy's hand. Upon contact, my vision suddenly exploded with colors, people and objects that I would never recognize in real life. His memories flooded into my mind, memories of life at home and his friends, words and places so jumbled together that I would never hope to understand them before they faded.

I ripped my hand away from his just as the blue started fading to white, thank goodness. The color returned to normal, and I backed away slowly.

"Seeyoulaterbyenow!" I shouted behind me, looping my arm through Danielle's and tugging her away from the trio before she could protest. If she didn't know that something was wrong, she probably would've punched me.

"Avra, what's up?" she started once the terrific trio was out of sight. "You have that look again." In reply I showed her the torn palms of my gloves, which she gently removed. I looked down at the white glow of my hands, my surroundings morphing into the small alley, shadows cast by the brown-pink glow. Only this time, there was only one man, and he was running away as fast as his little feet could carry him.

I blinked myself back to the present and was greeted with Danielle's aura, tinted dark blue with worry.

"Let's get back home, I'll patch these up for you, and you can practice destroying things to get rid of stress. How far did you get?" She asked, directing me towards the old apartment.

"Not very, his hand was barely white and I was still at meaningless flashes," I replied, keeping my bare hands as far in my pockets as they would go.

I hadn't had a scare like that in months, I doubted I was going to sleep tonight. I laughed coldly to myself just as I closed the door of the apartment.

_'Whether I sleep or not, I'll still be haunted by nightmares._'

"Needle and thread?" Danielle asked, rushing up the stairs.

"In my room, two drawers down on the left."

"Kay. You go downstairs and blow stuff up our whatever it is you do to stay calm." I agreed silently, throwing my jacket on the old mattress and cracking my knuckles.

Smiling to myself, I headed downstairs towards what was probably an out-of-commission kitchen, judging by the awkwardly placed gaps between surfaces, and the counter running through the middle if the room.

From some cupboard I pulled old Styrofoam cups that we'd nicked from a fast food place and arranged them sloppily on the counter. Then I took two steps back, focusing on a single emotion and breathing deeply.

_'Anger.' _My hand glowed muddy red, brighter every second, before I jerked it foreword and released the glob of energy. It flew the length of the room, illuminating the walls and corners, every surface it passed with its angry glow before crashing into one of the cups, exploding.

"Keep it down, would ya?" Danielle shouted from upstairs. "If the neighbors call the cops on us, I'm blaming you!"

"Whatever!" I shouted, throwing another blast. The red was brighter, the glob larger, and filled with energy as it shook the entire room in an explosion.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO SEW THIS GLOVE OR NOT!" Danielle shouted. My eye twitched in annoyance, sometimes I wondered how I'd lived in the same building as her for five years without killing her.

I focused again, trying to build up my energy in a controlled, small blast. My hand glowed black, showing my desperate attempt at control, concealment.

_'Concealment?' _My thoughts went to a memory that wasn't mine, I knew that because it was in color, everything was there. It was hazy, from the eyes of someone else. A bright blue flash, a feeling like being ripped apart and stitched back together, then the inside of... something. It was a small space, and the memory was only there for a second. I- no, Kaldur walked out of the room, looking to the left and right, checking out his surroundings. It was an abandoned lot, that much I could tell by the disorder of the area, trash and rotting cardboard everywhere, and a dirty brown picket fence surrounding it. Kaldur walked foreword, pushing a plank from the fence out of the way and waking down the street.

"Hey, I finished your- Woah, not to be racist or anything but you turned black..." I snapped out of the memory, faced with Danielle's bright orange.

"Uh, what?" I asked, blinking dumbly.

"You are glowing black. It's kinda creepy." Looking down at myself I saw she was right, my aura had gone from white to black, and was rolling with the pent up energy.

"Oh..." I mumbled. "Got lost in thought I guess. How long was I out?"

"You got quiet for about twenty minutes after I shouted at you, I figured you were just playing with colors or something. Didn't realize you were going for this."

"Oh shut up..." I breathed out slowly, trying not to release the energy wrong and blow up the entire block. Once the black glow had faded, I visibly relaxed and slumped against the wall, rubbing the sweat off of my forehead. "Hey, do you know if there are any abandoned lots in the city? Like, no buildings or anything?" I asked, taking back my gloves. The stitches weren't the best, but they would work for now.

"Well, there are a few around the outskirts of the city. Why do you care?" Danielle grabbed some old folding chairs from another room and dragged them into the kitchen, and we sat down.

"I'm just thinking about something. Are any of the lots surrounded by an old brown fence, or am I just being crazy?" Danielle paused, chin in her hand.

"Well, there is one, right at the border of the city. I repeat, why do you care?" I debated with myself on whether or not to tell her, the good side of my conscience winning out.

"You know the guy who's memories I got, Calvin?"

"Yeah..."

"Well I might have found a bit of something interesting. His name isn't Calvin, for starters, it's Kaldur. There were a couple of flashes, he's hanging out with people dressed in capes and masks, and other times he's under the water. The one I'm thinking of, there was a bright blue flash and suddenly he was walking out of an empty lot in Central. I think..." I paused, trying to find the right words. "I think I just shook hands with a superhero."

.:)$(:.

**Eh... sorry for the delay, I've been distracted. Really, really distracted.** **Please keep in mind, if something doesn't make sense (i.e. flaming oranges or doofbarg) it's probably a joke my friends have in real life that I felt like including. Please p.m. me if you have any confusion or problem with what I've included.**  
**Read and review! **


	3. Chapter 2: Left Central

_'Thoughts'_  
"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"  
__  
_

_"I think I just shook hands with a superhero."_

Central City  
July 9, 11:56 CDT

"You'd better be right about this, Doro," Danielle complained, dragging me down the street. "Or else I'm gonna scalp you and leave you for the vultures."

"They'd be scared off by the rainbows exploding from my forehead," I replied, smirking. "Are we getting any closer? I need to prove you wrong so that your skepticism will go away and stop giving me a headache."

Dirty gray over orange? Not a pretty combination.

"Yeah, I can see the fence you were talking about. And I'm not going to stop being skeptical until you give me solid proof that superheroes are teleporting across the country in abandoned phone boxes, and that the guy whose memories you stole hadn't lost his marbles." I rolled my eyes, Danielle was never one to accept ANYTHING if the proof wasn't staring her in the face. We stopped suddenly, and I saw the outlines of the wood planks towering about two feet over my head, and Danielle tapping her foot impatiently. "Well? We're here. What am I supposed to be looking for, exactly?"

"The loose board so that we can get inside, duh. One of them should flip up so that we can walk under." We began pushing on all of the planks, only stopping when I heard Danielle yelp and fall inside the lot. "Told ya so," I gloated, following behind a bit more gracefully. And by gracefully, I mean I took one step and tripped over some empty crate or something, I was too busy cradling my throbbing toes to care to find out what it was.

"Majestic," Danielle said, barely concealing a giggle and wiping off her pants.

"Oh shut up. Is there anything here?" I asked, gingerly putting my foot back on the ground and looking around the almost empty space.

"Yeah, there's a pile of rotting cardboard in the corner over there, some weeds, your standard city trash, an old phone box in the back-" I cut her off, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards where she had pointed. Sure enough, I bumped shoulders with the mentioned phone box, the door creaking open from the impact. "You have got to be kidding me," Danielle said flatly as I pushed her in the booth.

"Nope! Haven't been any more serious since I learned that the sky was blue," I replied jokingly, closing the door behind us. "Now, fiddle with technologies before I break something, which we both know is bound to happen at some point." Danielle mumbled something that resembled 'you got that right,' before quite literally shoving me out of the box and slamming the door behind her. "Hey! What am I supposed to do?" I whined, plopping down in front of the fire and putting on what I hoped was a convincing pout.

"Sit there and stand guard or something, if anyone catches us messing with this we'll be put back in the foster care system, AND we'll have to do community service. Ugh-" I could practically feel her shudder. "And don't touch anything!"

"Aaaagh," I exaggerated a groan, earning a metal projectile to the forehead from Danielle. "Hey! What was that?" I shouted, rubbing where the whatever-it-was struck me.

"A nut. Now shut up so I can hack into this wireless system and access every one of these teleporting phone boxes in the world." I grumbled for a second before realizing what she said, my eyes widening.

"You mean- ow!" Another nut hit me, and it was Danielle's turn to grumble.

"I hate it when you're right."

.:)$(:.

Two. Hours.

Two freaking hours of lying in the grass/dirt doing nothing while Danielle hacked in to whatever thing the magic phone box of teleportation ran on, rambling about the almost alien technological advancements of all of it and how she'd never seen **[Unpronouncable Technical Jargon]** so complicated and bla bla bla.

"Are you dooooooone yet?" I whined, rolling over on my stomach and putting my face in my hands like a child might do. Right on cue, my stomach rumbled loudly, giving me more excuses to complain. "I'm staaaaarving! It took less time than this for you to hack into the FBI, and you said that was the hardest thing you'd ever done!"

Yes. Danielle has hacked into the FBI for reasons that even I do not know.

"Well I was WRONG, OKAY?!" she growled back at me, probably just a tired as I was. "OBVIOUSLY the freaking JUSTICE LEAGUE is going to have better security than any government agency you could think of, and OBVIOUSLY I'm not gonna get anything done if you keep BUGGING ME!"

I was silent for exactly two minutes.

"So which heroes do you think those guys were?" Danielle sighed, but didn't shout at me. Instead she replied,

"I don't. I think they were sidekicks, they were way to young to be any superhero I've seen."

"Well okay then, which _sidekicks _do you think they were?"

"Well, Calvin-"

"Kaldur."

"Whatever! _Kaldur _is probably Aqualad. That's Aquaman's partner, and the only one out of the four that I know of who's black- not to be racist. From what I've seen on tv, he has the same hair color too, a blonde buzz cut. Plus, he was wearing a coat that covered up his neck, and it has to be ninety degrees outside."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Aqualad has _gills,_" Danielle replied, as if that explained everything... which in a way, I guess it did.

"Fine. Continue?" I waved my hand impatiently at her.

"The ginger I was yelling at is probably Flash Boy, or whatever he's called. He and the Flash are actually based in Central, so I've seen them running around a few times. You can always see the carrot top over the yellow blur when he runs by. Hold this for a sec." She passed me a metal something and a wrench- don't ask me where she got it from, I don't know- before taking the former back and doing something that sounded as if she were banging it against the wall.

"What are you doing?" I asked incredulously, once the noise stopped.

"Modifying the scanner. I've had access for the last ten minutes, I just felt like doing this to spite you." I was very tempted to bash the wrench I was holding into her skull.

"Uh huh, uh huh, screw you," I replied, standing up and dusting myself off. I handed her back the wrench and leaned against the side of the box, staring off at the nothingness past the nearby buildings.

"Who do you think the last one was?" I asked finally, unable to bear the silence.

"Robin. Cocky ebony midget? No question, had to be him." We both laughed, and Danielle stepped out to admire her handiwork, or so I assumed anyway. Her aura was blinding- pun totally intended- and tinted yellow, showing how she had those brain cogs working.

"Soo... what now?" I asked, turning towards the box.

"Well, according to this list of coordinates I downloaded onto my phone, there are at least two dozen zeta-beam locations worldwide, the majority of those in the northern United States. There's a couple in the ocean though, for whatever reason, and one where the coordinates are unlisted, just the word Watchtower. Weird. Anyway, I registered us in the Authorized Guest list, so we can go anywhere without any trouble as long as we don't run into any leaguers."

"Huh. So what're our options?"

"Gotham is out, it's got too many caped crazies, and Batman. We want to avoid the home cities of any major superheroes."

"'Kay. Well is there anywhere in particular that _you_ want to go?"

"Well, I've always wanted to see the ocean," Danielle started, looking at something in her hand- probably her phone. "But the heat down south would be god awful this time of year. East or west coast?"

"Eh, why not east?"

"Okay then. How about Rhode Island? For whatever reason there's a tube in some town called Happy Harbor."

"Sounds cute. Sure, what the heck, why not?"

"Happy Harbor, here we come!"

Danielle opened the door once again, shoving me inside and squeezing in behind me. I heard the distinct click of her typing on her iPhone, then a low buzzing noise coming from the walls.

"Um, what is that?" I asked nervously, trying to press myself as far away from Danielle as possible.

"It's scanning us, don't move. It needs a reference image, then it'll teleport us to the coordinates I fed it, to Happy Harbor." Not a second after she said that did the process start. Danielle probably knew what was happening down to the letter, but I was left completely in the dust and in extreme pain, as it felt like I was being ripped apart, thrown around in empty space, and then stitched back together, all in a matter of seconds. I heard a loud buzzing the entire time, and only when I heard **"Recognized; Ellis, A03; Doro, A04,"** could only feel solid ground under my feet, and I knew it was over.

"Oh, I think I'm gonna hurl," I mumbled, keeping a hand over my mouth.

"You get used to it... I hope," Danielle replied, only sounding a little less disgruntled.

Once I got my bearings, I took a look at wherever we were. I could see the small tunnel we'd just come out of, and the very, very faint walls on the other side of the room. The ceiling was just low enough for me to see, plain if it weren't for the large... something sticking out and hanging down. There was a hallway across from where we stood, far enough away that I couldn't see the end of it. Otherwise the room was completely empty.

"Uh, where are we?" I asked, walking out towards the hallway.

"A cave... I think? Half of it looks all rugged and cave-like, but the rest seems all modern and homey. I don't know what to-"

_"Who are you?" _A feminine voice rang out through my head, their tone accusing and so loud that my head began to pound.

"You heard that too, right?" I asked, rubbing my temples. It would not do to go crazy now, not after I actually found something interesting to do with my time.

"Yeah, I heard it. Not sure I believe it yet, but I heard it."

_"Who are you and what are you doing here!" _the voice repeated. I could hear more conversation down the hall, the same girl and a boy, both sounding about our age. Danielle turned to me, her aura turning a dark muddy blue.

"What the hell did we walk into, Avra?"

Then it started.

From the hallway, two people emerged, a boy with a dim black aura, and a girl with bright magenta, who was literally floating over our heads.

"Who are you and what are you doing here!" the girl asked, out loud this time. She hovered in front of us, but the black boy kept charging, heading straight for us.

"Hey!" Danielle shouted, only barely avoiding the boy. There was a loud crash, and then a growl from the boy, who's aura was quickly becoming a muddy red.

"Danielle, I think you got him angry," I stated, running away from him.

"Superboy, wait!" the floating girl called. The boy- Superboy, apparently- didn't listen, charging foreword with a roar.

I was frozen on the spot- what the heck was going on?!- and just before Superboy would have made impact, I was lifted in the air by an invisible force.

"Sorry!" the mystery girl called from in front of me, before she leaned foreword and pressed her fingers to my temples. Her fingers and forehead had turned blue, and I wouldn't have thought anything of it if A) she hadn't been flying, and B) I couldn't sense her presence in my mind.

"Hey! Put me down!" I could faintly hear from across the room, where Superboy was wrestling with Danielle. The latter was already speckled with grayish white, suggesting injury, but that was all I saw before memories invaded my mind.

Everything was red, underground. There was no sky, just cave walls and hollowed out rooms. The people were green, their heads shaped differently from how I'd been told they were supposed to look. There were crowds of people, all humanoid and green, and talking without opening their mouths.

I snapped out of the memories with a scream, having been dropped haphazardly onto the ground.

"You had my memories! How did you get those!" The magenta girl asked, landing in in front of me. Her hands were white for a moment before becoming pink again, but she was becoming speckled blue with fear. I stood up quickly, backing away before anything else could happen.

How could this day have gone so wrong?

I was hyperventilating, but answered anyway so the girl wouldn't try to read my mind again.

"I didn't _have _them until a few seconds ago, when you _gave _them to me!"

"I didn't _give_ them to you, I was just _reading_ your mind!"

"Enough talk!" the angry red boy shouted, charging again.

Oh crap, oh crap oh crap oh-

_**BOOM! **_

A blue blast of energy materialized from my palms, knocking the boy back and destroying my gloves.

"Superboy!" Pinky asked, flying over to her comrade. "What did you do to him?"

"I-I didn't mean to! It was an accident, I swear!" I looked down at my hands, still glowing blue. My gloves! They were completely destroyed! Bright yellow mixed itself in with the blue, the fear of losing control.

"What is going on here?" a new voice asked, monotone and robotic. Who said that?

I looked up, where the voice had come from, only to see the faint outline of a person, moving too fast for me to see them properly, and no aura to speak of.

"An intruder! She has powers, and knocked out Superboy!" Pinky cried.

"Then I will handle this. Go to the communication terminal, and contact the Batman," the robot voice replied.

The Batman?! Oh sh-

The wind was knocked out of me, a cold metal hand connecting with my gut. Several more punches came from an attacker I couldn't see, before a metal hand closed around my throat, lifting me into the air.

I had one reassuring thought before the air was somehow sucked right out my lungs, knocking me out;

At least I couldn't kill this guy.

.:)$(:.

**Sroloc** **Elbisivni: The jokes will continue, Danielle is based on a friend of mine in real life who came up with endless amounts of them :P I'm glad you like it!**

**Guest: Thank you! I'm actually surprised by the lack of blind OCs, I've only found... 2 others, I think?**

**bluepenquin1998: I bet the IRL Danielle would be glad to hear that :P And just wait till they meet again!**

**Thanks to PainInSilence, Berrygrey, BubmleJay, chained2love, SoraLover987142, NobleSilverShadow, Kuro** **Rotasu, and Shadowed-Angel321 for following, and PainInSilence, bluepenquin1998, NobleSilverShadow, and Hiniko for favoriting.  
**  
**There will be one more chapter after this, then I'm through with this arc and starting with the show! Finally! **


	4. Chapter 3: Interrogation

'_Thoughts'  
_"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Tube"**

'_At least I can't kill this guy._'

Mount Justice  
July 9, 14:37 EDT

"Should we wake them up?"

"They are just kids, how did they even get in here?"

"They hacked the zeta-beam system, I'm patching up the holes now."

"What did Superboy do to the brown-haired one?"

"I believe he punched her."

"Do we know anything about them?"

"Not much, but according to-"

"Ugh," I groaned, sitting up and blinking slowly. '_What happened?_ _Oh, right, I walked into the secret base of the Justice League and got knocked out by a robot. Joy.' _

I was greeted by the sight of four grownups, one woman and three men. I could see the vague outline of the robot in the corner, and Danielle in a chair next to me, still unconscious.

"Are you alright?" the woman- an orange-red aura that radiated confidence- asked, sitting in front of me. I went to rub my temples, trying to quell my headache, only to find my hands cuffed to the chair.

"Sure, you could say that," I replied, grimacing. Robots HURT.

"That's good," she said, reaching out a hand to grab my shoulder. I winced, but she didn't move. "I'm Dinah. Can I ask your name?" I didn't reply, instead glaring at her hand, trying to keep my neck from rubbing against it.

"Avra Doro," someone else said for me, a tall man with a deep red aura at the back of the room. He sat next to Dinah and pushed something in front of me, a stack of papers. "Am I correct?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Could someone please wake Danielle up?"

"Your friend is Danielle Ellis?"

"Yes, yes, now stop asking meaningless questions that you already know the answer to and wake up my friend!" I spat, trying and failing to cross my arms with handcuffs. Everyone in the room flashed white with surprise.

"Do you know where you are?" Dinah continued, leaving Danielle alone.

"Happy Harbor or whatever, I don't really care. Could you _please _let go of my shoulder?" She complied hesitantly, instead resting her hand on whatever Red Man had pushed towards me.

"Do you recognize these?"

"No. Can someone PLEASE wake Danielle up?" It was true, I can't really recognize something I can't see.

"It would be best if Danielle got some rest, Superboy hit her pretty hard. Now tell me, how can you not recognize your own Social Services profile?"

"Cause I'm blind you idiots, that's why I need Danielle!" My fingers, which I was drumming against my legs in order to keep from punching someone, were beginning to glow muddy red. These people were infuriating! Everyone's aura went white again, and I could see the men in the back turn to each other.

"How are you able to see us if you are blind?" a man with a deep, accented voice and a green aura asked, approaching the table.

"It's complicated," Danielle and I said at once. Wait, what?

"Danielle! Thank god you're awake, who am I shouting at?" Her aura was still dim, and the grayish white patches covered at least a fourth of the orange. This Superboy must have done a number on her. Danielle looked around the room, and out of the corner of my eye I could see several of the adults' auras turn gray with skepticism.

"Oh god..." Danielle whispered. "I really hope you haven't said anything too obscene, Avra. From left to right, it's Batman, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Zatara, and Red Tornado."

_'Oh shit...' _

I gulped nervously, turning back to the freaking JUSTICE LEAGUE. Batman's deep red was tinted indigo, analyzing us, and Dinah was just plain confused.

"If you're blind, how can you see us?" She asked, echoing Manhunter's question.

"I can see your auras. To me, you all look like giant blobs of colorful light, so your pretty hard _not _to see." Hey, now that I knew who I was talking to, I definitely wasn't going to lie.

"Are you the one who hacked the zeta-tube systems?" Batman asked, turning to Danielle.

"Yeah, what about it?" she replied, still keeping her snarky attitude despite the situation.

"There are only three people in America who can hack into our database without being detected." _'Three people in America? Well done, my friend.'_ "How did you find the console?"

"That would be me," I cut in. "I accidentally found out about them from your friend Kaldur."

"How?" Back to Dinah, then.

"I can... steal your memories with skin contact," I replied, choosing my words carefully. "It's not like I mean to or anything, it just... happens."

"And you have had these abilities for how long?" This guy was new, Zatara, I think Danielle called him? His aura was deep violet, just teeming with magical energy.

"For as long as I can remember, I guess."

Insert awkward silence.

"Do you know what these are?" Batman asked Danielle, pushing the papers towards her. She started flipping through them- _'Wait, what? How come she isn't handcuffed! No fair.'_\- not seeming too interested.

"Yeah, they're all our profiles and reports from when we were kids. Hold on, where did you get these? I thought I erased them." He held something up to her. "Hey! That's my phone!" Ah, that explains it.

"You keep our information on your phone? No wonder you're so intent on keeping that thing alive," I said, turning as far as I could to look at her. Stupid handcuffs.

"Why did you want to use the zeta-beams?" Manhunter asked from the back of the room. Danielle and I glanced at each other before replying simultaneously,

"We were bored."

"We work all the time to stay alive, there's not as much room for fun as you might think when you're looking over your shoulder every second of the day," Danielle explained, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair.

"And how do you earn money?" Dinah asked.

"Odd jobs, mostly. Fountain change and begging when times are tough, but it hasn't come to that in a while."

"What kind of odd jobs?"

"Nothing illegal. We just do some stuff for a friend of ours, a librarian at the CCPL. Mostly organizing books and making her life a little easier, and she gives us food and pocket money. It's not much, but hey, it puts food in the fridge."

It was silent for a few moments, but the adults' auras were all changing constantly, as if they were having a conversation.

_'Wait, Martian Manhunter? Oh!'_

"Are you guys having a psychic conversation?" Danielle elbowed me, almost toppling the chair. "Ow! I was just asking!" Naturally, the adults ignored my question.

"Why did you disappear from the care of Social Services?" Batman asked. Danielle and I stiffened, my expression becoming stony, and her aura turning black.

"I hated it. I was six, so my reason at the time was probably silly, but then I met Avra, and learned that I could help people more out here than in there, and just never felt like going back." Lies.

"Danielle, it would be best if you told us the truth," Dinah echoed my thoughts. My friend stayed silent. "Well, alright then. J'onn?" Manhunter's eyes glowed indigo, something I'd never seen before. I saw his green aura in Danielle's head, and Danielle flinch violently.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you!" They returned to normal, and Danielle sighed. "Like I said, I was six. My parents were pretty messed up, and my Nana made to take custody of my sister and me. The court case got me out of my parents' house, but somehow I got taken from my Nana and sucked into the system. I hated it, that part is true. So I ran away and went to my Nana. When I finally managed to track her down, it turned out she was in the hospital, in the ICU. I never learned what happened, all I know is that she didn't make it. My sister didn't come with me, and now she's in college across the country. I didn't care to go back into the system, so I stayed on the streets and eventually met Avra." If I hadn't been handcuffed and had been wearing gloves, I would have put a hand on her shoulder in comfort. I knew it was hard for her to talk about that.

"And you, Avra?" Dinah asked after a pregnant pause.

"Because I'm dangerous," I replied, not missing a beat. Canary made a motion, telling me to continue. "I kind of skimmed around the truth earlier, I don't just steal people's memories. I absorb the life energy in their aura." I swear to you, the temperature dropped at least ten degrees as soon as I said that.

"Like I said, it's not like I mean to. It just happens, which is why I try to cover up as much as possible. I can assure you, I let go of Kaldur before anything permanent could happen, so he's perfectly fine. But for why I avoid the system, I figured out pretty quickly that I could hurt people, so I ran away. There was a kid, Emily Zachmann? Catatonic for three years, right?" Batman started typing on something, I didn't really care what it was. "Well, I wasn't really better off out on the streets. Some idiot tried to attack me, but before I could die of strangulation he was completely devoid of life force energy. Then Danielle and I found each other. She gave me her gloves, we were inseparable ever since."

The silence was almost tangible, it was so heavy. I had a feeling the adults were conversing psychically again, but I didn't lift my gaze from the blackness of the table.

"We're in huge trouble, aren't we?" Danielle asked, sounding empty. I bit my lip, dreading the answer.

"Not necessarily."

_'What now?' _

My head snapped up just in time to see Zatara and Martian Manhunter leave the room. I wasn't sure about the robot, but I assumed he left too.

"Huh? How so?" Danielle asked warily. Batman appeared behind me, unlocking the cuffs without a word.

"You said you met Aqualad in Central City. Am I right to assume that he wasn't alone?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, there were two others, Wally and Rob. Are _we_ right to assume that they are Kid Flash and Robin?" Bats nodded.

"We have created a covert team of young heroes," Dinah started, handing me a new pair of gloves. _'When did she have time to get these?'_ "And we think your skills could be very beneficial. You would be able you stay here at the cave with Superboy and Miss Martian. You would train with them, go to school when the year starts, and all of your basic needs would be provided for you."

_'Hold on hold on WHAT NOW?' _

"All we would need is for you to accompany them on their covert missions."

_'And there's the catch.' _

I looked at Danielle, I could tell she was seriously considering it.

"Why us?" she asked. Batman answered this time.

"As Black Canary said, your abilities could be beneficial. It would also be an opportunity for Avra to learn to control her powers, and prevent potentially deadly situations in the future."

"And if we say no?" He didn't answer, but I think that's because he knew that there was no way we _could _say no.

Danielle looked at me again, and even if I couldn't see her expression I knew exactly what she was trying to tell me.

"Sure, why not?"

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice  
July 10, 18:32 EDT

The door snapped shut behind me with a hiss, leaving me alone in my new room. I dropped my duffel on the bed, walking around the perimeter and tracing my hands over the walls. One wall was made of rough, uneven stone, actually part of the cave. The next one was smooth metal with a door on either side, and the next was made up entirely of empty bookshelves. The doors in the back led to a walk in closet and a small restroom. The entire main room room was empty, save for the queen sized bed in the very center.

My duffel was almost empty, only containing all of my clothes, three new pairs of gloves (courtesy of Batman) and a sleeping bag from my old apartment.

Bats had given us a day to get all of our valuables and move in to the cave, when we only really needed an hour. Now we were waiting patiently for the rest of our new team, so that we could introduce ourselves properly without getting attacked.

I spun around the room again, looking over the dim outlines. Once the duffel was haphazardly thrown in the closet, I laid out the sleeping bag, somewhat hiding it behind the headboard and dropping the two pillows on top of it.

Don't judge me. I had slept in a sleeping bag for five years, the bed in the apartment easily being classified as hazardous waste.

Now that my makeshift bed had been made, I plopped down on the floor, just in time for someone to knock quietly on the door.

Naturally.

I jumped up from the floor, quickly sitting myself on the real bed with my back against the headboard, before fumbling with the remote Batman had given me to open my door so that I wouldn't have to bother with a pass code. The door wooshed open, revealing the agonizingly pink aura of Miss Martian.

"Hi!" she waved. She sounded bubbly enough, but judging by the light brown overlaying the magenta, she was feeling guilty about attacking us earlier.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, sliding off the bed and giving a small smile.

"Well, I'd heard from Red Tornado that you were joining the team, and I just wanted to welcome you! So, welcome to the team! And also, I wanted to apologize for attacking you earlier, it was uncalled for."

"Thanks for the welcome, and it really wasn't uncalled for, not in the slightest. You were defending your home, and I respect that. Danielle and I should have just minded our own business, but hey, if we'd done that we wouldn't be here now." Miss M giggled, and the brown evaporated instantly.

"Would you like me to show you around the cave?" she asked, holding a hand out towards the hallway.

"Sure! Wouldn't want to get lost before I even get to introduce myself, would I?" The rest of the evening was a lot like that, Megan- as I had learned her name to be- telling me about the different rooms of the cave, me memorizing the number of steps to each location, and all of us talking about totally random things. Danielle had joined us at some point, probably about half an hour into the tour.

"Hey Avra, can I ask you something?" Megan asked for the third time. We'd already gone over my previous living conditions, what some of the different aura colors mean, and that yes, I am actually technically blind.

"Sure, shoot."

"How did you get my memories when we were fighting yesterday?" We stopped in the kitchen/living area, Danielle flopping on the couch, Megan hovering near the stove, and me sitting on a bar stool.

"That's a part of my powers, I can see your memories when I make skin contact, which is why I don't like people touching me. So when you put your fingers on my face, I got a nice dose of your Martian memories. Do Martians live underground?"

"Yes, the surface is uninhabitable, so we live in hollowed out caves."

"Ah, cool. So, who's the other guy, Superboy? He's been lurking around ever since the tour started, and I can see him standing in the other room so unless it's in his nature to be silent and brooding he might as well come out and say hi!" I got progressively louder, not being subtle at all.

"Hn," was all I heard, but I did see his glowing black form sit on the opposite side of the couch from Danielle, and I heard static starting up on the tv.

"Ah the relaxing sound of static. So, what's his story?" I asked, turning to Megan. She was angled towards the door, probably staring. Her aura was a bit more pink than magenta now, and I smirked.

"Well, from what I heard, he is Superman's clone, and Aqualad, Robin, and Kid Flash rescued him from Cadmus. That's how this team was formed, apparently, but I didn't learn anything else about it. Maybe we can ask the others when they arrive."

"Yeah, maybe..." I mumbled.

The next few moments were filled with comfortable silence, save for Megan doing something at the stove and Danielle's occasional snores. Superboy made no move to introduce himself and I returned the gesture, the both of us just staring off into space.

The short time of peace, sadly, had to end.

**"Recognized; Aqualad, B02; Kid Flash, B03; Robin, B01,"** a robotic voice rang through the cave, followed by footsteps and a quiet conversation. Danielle jerked up in her seat, having been woken up, and everyone except Superboy turned towards the training area.

"Hi Aqualad, Kid Flash!" Megan greeted, abandoning her cooking and flying over to the newcomers.

"Hey Miss M."

"Good evening, Miss Martian."

"Hey babe, how's it going?"

_'Oh right, forgot about him. Ugh," _I mentally groaned at KF's flirting, steeling myself for an unhealthy dose of it directed at me.

Danielle got up off the couch and I followed her, ready to say hello to our new teammates.

"We got two new team members while you were out, Batman recruited them!"

"New? Who else could there be?"

"Speedy?"

"New team members? Do we know them?" Kaldur asked, just as we entered the room.

"Not very well, but that might change," I called out, making both boys jump. What on earth had happened to them? Their blue, red, and yellow was covered with large patches of grayish-white, and they all seemed slumped a bit, like they were extremely tired.

"Avra?!"

.:)$(:.

**I got stuck at the end of this chapter, so I'm gonna leave what happens next up to your imagination. **  
**Yay! I'm finally gonna start writing the show! I'll most likely be writing this on my ten hour drive home from Kentucky when I have the free time to watch the show, and I'll post when I'm back home with internet. Stupid kindle doesn't have 4G :/**

**Review? **


	5. Chapter 4: Welcome to Happy Harbor

_'Thoughts'_  
"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Beam"**

_"Avra?!"_

Mount Justice  
July 18, 11:16 EDT

Eight days. Eight days after joining a covert ops superhero team, and the most exciting thing I'd done was bake cookies with Megan. They were really good cookies actually, so long as she remembered the timer.

Anyway, our initial introduction was somewhat successful in that nobody attacked us, but less so seeing how Kid Flash and Robin instantly went on guard. Aqualad was friendly enough, but he was extremely confused.  
And now, eight days later, there I was lounging on the couch, playing with my fingers and trying to make them turn different colors without blowing anything up. Heck, I might've just blown something up for fun at that point, I was so bored.

**"Recognized; Robin, B01; Kid Flash, B03." **

Danielle's head snapped up from where she'd been staring at her phone, and I could see Kaldur's bright blue aura leave from the kitchen out of the corner of my eye.

"Come on Avra," Danielle cried, grabbing my arm and pulling me hard off the couch, and towards the training room. My once black fingers blinked white with surprise before fading, and I stumbled along behind her, grumbling all the way about annoying boys and their teleportation interrupting my boredom.

Yeah, I didn't ready like the younger two of the Primaries, as I was calling them. Hey, Red, Yellow and Blue, I did learn that much before dropping out of everyday life.

"Did you ask him?"

"What did he say?"

I could hear their frantic questions from across the room, and Danielle and I joined their little huddle around Kaldur's blue glow. Said boy turned, his aura tinted slightly yellow with happiness.

"He is arriving now."

"Who, Red Tornado?" Danielle asked. "What's going on?"

"Then what're we waiting for?" Kid Flash shouted, completely ignoring the question and running off. I shook my head and trailed behind the group slowly, my arms crossed. Apparently with this team, if you didn't have an official Justice Leaguer mentor, you did not exist.

Hmph.

We made our way outside, just in time for me to hear the whirring of artificial wind and a metallic landing.

"Red Tornado!" KF shouted, waving and stopping in the grass.

"Greetings," came the cold reply. I honed in on where the sound was coming from to see the robots dim outline. "Is there a reason you intercept me outside the cave?"

"We hoped you had a mission for us," Kaldur took over.

"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility."

"But it's been over a week and nothing eve-"

"You will be tested soon enough," Tornado cut Robin of, and even I could tell that the conversion was over. "For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company." I scoffed, though I don't think anyone noticed. How can I enjoy someone's company if none of the people actually want me to be there?

"This team is not a social club," Kaldur voiced what everyone was probably thinking, his aura now overlayed with dark green, and patches of muddy red.

"No. But I am told social interaction is an important team-building exercise. Perhaps you can keep busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave." The conversation was most definitely over now, Tornado making this clear by walking through the crowd to the entrance. The sound of his electronic joints was probably the only way I avoided being crashed into, that and Danielle pulling on my arm.

"Keep busy," KF muttered darkly, his and Robin's aura now matching Kaldur's.

"Does he think we're falling for this?!" the Boy Wonder snapped.

"Oh! I'll find out," Megan replied. Her head turned indigo, and I could feel her telepathic presence in the air, but nothing happened to the robot.

**"Recognized; Red Tornado, 16." **

The indigo faded, and the Martian hung her head. "I'm sorry, I forgot he's a machine. Inorganic. I... cannot read his mind."

"Nice try though," Wally said, his aura turning pink. "So, uh... you know what I'm thinking right now?" I might've thrown up if I wasn't so busy trying to block his aura from my line of sight. Yellow, pink, dark red, and dark green all in one person? Not only must he be sick in the head, he was giving me a headache.

"We all know what you're thinking," Robin said harshly. I saw Robin elbow and Danielle smack the flirt upside the head before I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"And now we tour the clubhouse."

"Well, Superboy, Avra, Danielle and I all live here, so we can play tour guides," Megan offered.

"Don't look at me," Superboy and I said simultaneously.

"We won't," Kid Flash replied, the pink in his aura brightening. He looped his arms around Megan's and Danielle's shoulders, only to get smacked once again by the latter. "A private tour sounds much more fun."

"Wha- sh-she never said private!" Robin stammered.

"Team building," Kaldur cut the oncoming argument off. "We'll all go."

"So," Megan started, walking back towards the door. "This is our front door..."

I tuned out the rest of the tour, I really didn't care. At the time, the Primary's auras were all still evil looking, and my headache was killing me.

"Is something up?" Danielle had trailed behind the group to talk to me.

"Nothing really. The boys look like Dark Christmas and then some, and the color combination is giving me a headache." She nodded and pat me on the shoulder, there really wasn't much she could do anyway. "What're you doing anyway? Megan's been doing all the tour-guiding, you've just been tapping away on your phone."

Danielle let out a low growl, aura flashing angrily.

"Batman put a bunch of security measures on my phone to keep me from hacking into anything important, and I'm not even halfway through breaking them!" I smirked, her anger at the big bad Bat was extremely amusing.

"...and this would be the back. The cave is actually the entire mountain!" Megan finished cheerfully. We were on the opposite shore now, and I could see the dim outline of the ground several steps out before it dropped off.

"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League," Kid Flash put in, and we walked back inside.

"Then why abandon it for the Hall of Justice?" Superboy asked.

_'The what now? Oh, I'll just ask Danielle later.'_

"The secret location was... compromised."

"So they traded it in for a tourist trap? Yeah," Supey shot back, scoffing. "That makes sense."

"If villains know of the cave, we must be on constant alert!" Megan thought aloud, her aura tinting blue with worry. Robin grabbed her hand out of the air, the ugly colors disappearing in an instant.

"The bad guys know we know they know about the place, so they'd never think to look here."

"He means," Kid copied Robin's gesture, "we're hiding in plain sight."

"Ah. That's much clearer..."

"Liar. We all know that boys never make sense," I cut in from the back, making the Martian girl giggle. The two hormonal boys in the group were probably glaring at me, I just smirked. Superboy sniffed the air, and our attention was pulled to him.

"I smell smoke." My eyes widened with alarm.

"Hey Megan, weren't you making some-"

"MY COOKIES!" She flew off towards the kitchen, and everyone else stared after her.

"Aaaaand there she goes," Danielle mumbled. Kaldur looked at us.

"Has this happened before?" he asked.

"Three times," we replied at once, before walking off after her.

When I got to the kitchen, I immediately managed to burn my hand on the fresh-out-of-the-oven cookie sheet, getting a laugh from Danielle and concerned looks from everyone else.

"I'll be fine," I brushed it off, sucking on the burn until my healing would kick in.

"I was trying Granny Jones's recipe from episode 17 of- never mind!" Megan cut herself off quickly, her aura regaining its blue tint.

"I'm sure they would have tasted great, he doesn't seem to mind," Robin comforted Megan and gestured to Wally, who was scarfing the charcoal cookies.

"I... have a serious metabolism," he tried to defend himself in between crunches.

"I'll... make more?"

"It was sweet of you to make any."

"Like I said Megan, we just need to tape the timer to your forehead and they'll turn out delicious, like that batch from yesterday," I smiled encouragingly at her.

"Thanks Aqualad, Avra."

"We're off duty, call me Kaldur'Ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."

"I'm Wally. See, I already trust you with my secret ID, unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over here. Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name."

"Mine's no secret, it's M'Gann M'Orzz, but you can call me Megan. It's an Earth name, and I'm on Earth now," she replied, her bubbliness returning.

"Avra and I don't even have public identities yet, we're just playing along," Danielle said jokingly.

Superboy started walking to the door, but stopped when Megan's magenta aura entered his mind. His usual black turned muddy red with anger, and I heard him growl before shouting,

"Get out of my head!"

_"What's wrong, I don't understand. Everyone on Mars communicates telepathically," _Megan said, entering all of our minds. I leaned against the wall, the sudden pain was unbearable, but then a flash of black appeared in front of my forehead and she was gone.

"M'Gann, stop," Kaldur ordered, and she left the rest of their minds too. "Things are different on Earth. Here your powers are an extreme invasion of privacy."

"Besides," Wally said smartly. "Cadmus's creepy little psychic G-Gnomes left a bad taste in his brain."

"I-I didn't mean to-"

"Just. Stay. Out," Superboy growled, before leaving the room. There was an awkward pause, before I broke it by saying,

"His aura is simmering, and it is slightly extremely scary." A couple of other people nodded, and Megan smacked herself on the forehead.

"Hello Megan! I know what we can do!" She flew out the door and down the hall without another word, leaving the rest of us to follow warily.

.:)$(:.

It. Was. Pink.

M'gann's Bioship matched her aura completely and totally, effectively surrounding me in the horrifying color. If I didn't have a migraine earlier, I definitely had one now!

I was strapped in a chair with Aqualad in front of me and Kid Flash sitting behind me, Danielle across the aisle. Leaning back in my seat, I closed my eyes tightly and rubbed my temples- I had nothing against the friendly Martian, but her aura would be the death of me.

I sat like that for a while, only snapping out of it when someone mentioned Martian shapeshifting.

"Huh?" I asked wearily, and Danielle snickered.

"How is it that you can know what twenty given people are saying all at once, but half the time you don't know what's going on?"

"I have a headache, shut up. What's this about shapeshifting?"

M'Gann stood up from her seat, and her aura rippled with black, going from her feet to her head. She stuck a dramatic pose, before twirling, and doing another.

"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked dreamily. Danielle scoffed, saying,

"Yes, very much so," before clapping along with Robin.

"Impressive," he said, "but you know you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those."

"Wait, what just happened?" Danielle rubbed her temples.

"What do you _think _just happened, Avra?" I blinked.

"Oohhhhhhh..."

"Mimicking boys is a lot harder..." M'Gann said shyly.

"Well how about you try one of the girls then? You've got two models over here," KF suggested. I shrugged, why not? M'gann's aura rippled again, and it was followed by applause from the rest of the team.

"Who does she look like?" I asked Danielle quietly.

"You. She got it perfectly, too, it's awesome." I nodded.

"What happens to your clothes?" Kaldur asked.

"They're organic, like the ship! They respond to my mental commands."

"As long as they're the only ones," Superboy cut in coldly. Jerk.

"Hey, can you do that ghosting through walls thing Manhunter does?" Kid Flash asked eagerly. Fanboy.

"Density shifting? No... it's a very advanced technique." Robin started laughing quietly.

"Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall. When he tries it? Bloody nose." Danielle and I snorted simultaneously, and M'gann's aura brightened.

"Dude!" Wally shouted harshly.

"Here's something I _can_ do," Megan said, and the ship rippled until it was black. "Camouflage mode." I sighed in relief, the headache finally fading. Robin turned to me suddenly.

"Is something wrong with your hand?" I raised an eyebrow and looked at my hands, nothing seemed wrong. In fact, the burn from earlier was already healing- oh. I raised the rainbow-colored hand out in front of me.

"That's how I heal, whatever's wrong with me basically turns into a rainbow, and the energy repairs itself."

"Cool," Robin sounded genuinely impressed. "Does it work on other people?" I bit my lip.

"Yeah, but the worse the damage, the more energy I have to use. If you've been stabbed in the gut or something, I'm likely to pass out after fixing you."

"Red Tornado to Miss Martian. A security alert has been triggered at the Harpy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you investigate. Covertly." The ship buzzed, and I blinked stupidly. Wut?

"Received," Megan replied. "Adjusting course."

"Tch. Tornado's keeping us busy again," Robin said disdainfully.

"Well, a simple fire led you to Superboy. We should find out what caused the alert."

"I think I know the cause," Superboy replied calmly, looking it the window. Everyone's auras went white with shock, and they all turned to where Superboy was looking. Suddenly we were thrown around violently in the air, flipping over and spinning in circles. Thank Mars for automatic seatbelts, but we were all grunting in pain until the ship turned indigo and we leveled out. There was a thunk as we landed, and a large hole appeared in the floor beneath us, dropping us onto concrete. I miraculously managed to land on my feet without breaking anything.

I could feel wind blowing from a distance, and heard screams from what I assumed was the other side of the building. "What, is happening?" I asked hysterically.

"Robin, are tornados common in New England?" Kaldur turned behind him, and I pointed to where the boy wonder had run off to. "Robin?!"

"He was just here!" Megan cried. How did they not see him, it was pretty obvious.

I grabbed Danielle's sleeve and started running after him, and I heard the rest of the team behind me. We got inside just as Robin was thrown on the wall by a gust of wind.

"Who's your friend?" Superboy asked, crouching where Robin was on the floor. He wasn't injured as far as I could see, but what had gotten him in the first place?

"I didn't catch his name, but he plays kind of rough!" Everyone jumped off in the same general direction, except for Danielle and me.

"My apologies, you may address me as Mr. Twister." The voice came out of nowhere, and I could just barely make out the robot on the either side of the room.  
"What am I looking at?" I asked Danielle. She was typing ceaselessly on her phone.

"Robot. Tornados. Wi-Fi signal. Curse the Batman and his firewalls!" I didn't question it.

Superboy charged foreword roaring, but was immediately thrown back by the tornados I couldn't see. Kaldur nodded to the rest of them, who had all stood up in fighting stances. It all would have been rather impressive had it worked.

Kid Flash was thrown outside somewhere, far enough away that his aura looked white instead of yellow. Miss Martian and Aqualad were thrown into a wall, Danielle only barely dodging their bodies. I couldn't do anything, I couldn't see what I was supposed to be attacking.

"I was prepared to be challenged by a superhero. I was not however, expecting children," Twister drawled. I listened carefully and tried to focused on his dim outline, but it was buttered and very hard to keep track of. I charged a white blast of energy in my hand as Robin growled, aura flashing red.

"We're not children!" He threw several exploding things at the robot, and I winced at the heat of the blasts.

"Objectively you are," Twister replied.

"Danielle, how far out is he?" She looked up, thinking for a second before replying,

"46, 22, 30." I threw the white blobs of energy, and heard something sticking explosion from Twister's general direction. It must have hit him, because he grew annoyed. "And so you _can_ do something other than sit there. Not much, apparently. Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence quite disturbing."

"Well we hate to see you disturbed. Let's see if your more turbed when we kick your can!"

The team had recuperated, but not for long. M'Gann did something to knock the ceiling down on the robot, giving Superboy opportunity to jump at Twister _yet again_, but he was knocked into the Martian, and Aqualad and Robin were twisted around and thrown into each other. I tried throwing another energy glob, but it was stopped before it could hit and then thrown back at me. I managed to avoid the energy, but I was thrown to the floor by the blast it created.

"That was quite turbing, thank you," Twister said smugly. I heard him fly away, followed by sounds of destruction from outside. The team was already standing, I jumped up and followed before they could leave me behind. Danielle was still lagging behind us, typing on her phone and mumbling.

We were outside, M'Gann helping Kid Flash and the rest staring off at what I assumed was Twister.

"I would have thought you had all learned your limitations by now," he said, and I focused on his faded outline. It was at the point where if he moved at all I was likely to lose him.

"What do you want?!" Aqualad shouted, his aura flashing red with anger. The rest of the team, save for Miss Martian, were mirroring him in color.

"Isn't it obvious?" Twister replied, flying somewhere. I couldn't see him anymore. "I'm waiting for a real hero."

"Read his mind, find a weakness," Aqualad told Ms. M.

"But I thought I want shouted to do that..." she replied, panicking.

"It's okay with the bad guys!" Robin shouted. I glared at him.

'_Not. Helping._'

M'gann's aura went indigo, but nothing else happened.

"Nothing, I'm getting nothing!" Her aura returned to normal, and she smacked herself on the forehead. "_Hello _Megan! Mr. Twister is Red Tornado in disguise!" Danielle mumbled something in disagreement, but was so busy on her phone that no one seemed to notice. "He's inorganic, an android. And how many androids do you know that can generate tornados?"

"I don't think-"

"Red Tornado sent us here!" Aqualad cut me off. Gee, thanks Kaldur, I thought you were nice. Everyone's auras except for M'gann's were an identical shade of red, thank god for different voices.

"After saying we be tested soon enough? _This_ is his test," Robin replied. "Something to keep us busy."

"Speedy called it, we're a joke," Kid finished. Aqualad growled loudly, punching his hand. Their anger was... alright, I'll say it, _blinding_ now, though I think I was probably just as confused as M'Gann was. Who was Speedy?

The Primaries walked foreword, and Robin shouted,

"We know who you are, and what you want!" I didn't have a good feeling about this, though it seemed robots in general made me uneasy.

"So let's end this," Aqualad continued.

"Consider it ended."

Now I'm not entirely sure what happened next, because no one ever seems to describe it the same way. All I know for sure is that thunder was booming, wind was roaring, and it looked pretty damn impressive to anyone who could actually see it.

"An impressive show, but we will not indulge you, we will not engage!"

Danielle whooped behind me, jumping.

"Yes! I finally got through the security, now I can pull up Twister's specs," she told me, shining brightly. "Now I just need to- get down!"

Something exploded, slamming the entire team to the ground. Superboy was able to get up again, but he followed soon after. I was pushed past him by the crater of dirt he made, next to Robin.

Closing my eyes, I heard a crackling noise coming from above us, which was almost certainly Twister. I started guessing where exactly he was, charging a glob of energy all the while. That was, until I sensed the large black aura landing above us.

"Fine then. I won't deny you children have power, but playing hide and seek with you won't help me achieve my objectives. So stay concealed. If you confront me again, I will show. No. Mercy."

And then he was gone.

"What happened?" Kid Flash asked wearily.

"I placed the Bioship between us," M'Gann replied. Superboy loudly punched the rocks that were much closer to my head than I would like them to be.

"And that's supposed to make it right?" He started walking over to her, aura rolling with muddy red. "You tricked us into thinking Twister was Red Tornado!"

"She didn't do it on purpose-" Aqualad tried to stand up from her, but was cut off by his more negative teammates.

"It was a rookie mistake, we shouldn't have listened."

"You are pretty inexperienced... Hit the showers, we'll take it from here."

"Stay out of our way."

They were in the wrong now, Kid Flash and Robin and Superboy just ran off without listening to a word anyone had to say. I wasn't going to follow them. M'Gann was slumped over on the ground, her aura a muddy forest green. Feeling like a victim of the world, check. Blaming self or others, check. Insecurity and low self esteem, check. Sensitive to perceived criticism, double check.

I came up behind her, gripping her shoulder tightly to comfort her.

"I was just trying to be a part of the team," she said quietly. Aqualad came up behind us, aura dim.

"To be honest, I'm not sure we really have a team." I scowled in the direction he ran, _yeah, real helpful Kaldur._

"Come on," I said, pulling her up. "Let's go back to the cave and destroy their stuff, that always makes me feel better."

.:)$(:.

"The team really needs your help," M'Gann told the computer screen. I tried not to look at it, it was unnerving knowing there someone I couldn't see watching me from the other side.

"If I intervened, it would not be too help," Tornado replied. "Still, it is an odd coincidence this Twister shares my elemental abilities, and my immunity to telepathy."

"Hello Megan!"

"YES!" M'Gann and Danielle shouted at the same time. Danielle's arms went straight up in the air, and then her phone got me in the head. "Oh, sorry! But I just hacked into the wireless signal Twister is connected to. I'm looking at his blueprints right now, I know what he was designed for. He was made to track and hack into Red Tornado and upload his memory files." M'Gann gasped loudly.

"Hello Megan! I known we need to do!" Her aura went indigo, and I felt it project through the air towards where the rest of the team must have been fighting.

_"Listen to me, all of you." _My head started to hurt, but I knew stuff was important, so I didn't fight the feeling.

_"What did we tell you!" _Superboy growled.

_"I know! And I know I messed up, but now I'm very clear on what we need to do, so please just trust me!"_

.:)$(:.

M'Gann flew down from the camouflaged Bioship, her aura rolling black in what was apparently her Red Tornado disguise. We were above her, me hanging from the prepped zip line thing, and Danielle piloting the ship.

How was she piloting the ship? Martian mind weirdness, that's how.

"Hit the showers, boys," M'Gann said, sounding exactly like Red Tornado. "I was hoping you could handle this, clearly you cannot."

"But we've got a plan now!"

"The subject is not up for debate." The team dispersed into position. I pressed the button on my line, dropping to the ground next to Robin.

"I was beginning to believe you'd never show up."

"I'm here now," M'Gann said dramatically. She pointed to her right, and Kid ran in and started spinning, making a tornado of yellow light. However it may have actually looked, this version was badass.

A few unseen theatrics later, and M'Gann shouted, "We are evenly matched, Twister."

"No, Tornado, we are not!" M'Gann flew around a bit, and I felt the hour wind of an explosion hit my face. When I looked back up, the Martian was on the ground. I smirked. "Remain still, android. Reprogramming won't take long." M'gann's head swirled back into its normal shade of pink, and I grinned maniacally.

"Longer than you might think," she replied, before a Kid Flash sent him through a bright yellow tornado and right at Superboy. He threw the robot into the water. I'm unsure if what happened there, but something exploded back out, and M'Gann held it in the air so that Robin and I could launch our various projectiles at it.

_"31, 20, 12," _Danielle said through the mind link. I followed the coordinates and my blasts hit perfectly with Robin's birdarangs, making a violent explosion.  
Now, I was told that after that Twister fell to the ground, his chest opened up and a man stumbled out of it.

"F-foul, I call foul..." I was also told that M'Gann proceeded to levitate a rock and smash him with it.

"M'Gann, NO!" Naturally, I could see none of this, because it was another godforsaken robot. Robin marched up to the Martian, setting with anger.

"I don't know how things are done on Mars, but on Earth we don't execute our captives!" he shouted. I smirked, trying not to laugh.

"What, you thought it was real?" I asked smugly. Robin's aura was somewhat in between 'I'm gonna hurt you,' and 'What the hell are you talking about?'

"You said you'd trust me," M'Gann cut in, and then I saw her aura wrap around the touch and put it down nowhere in particular. Tension in the air dissolved almost instantly. The people who could see what as under it approached the area, I just kind of hung back. "That's why I couldn't read his mind."

"Cool! Souvenir," Kid Flash said, flipping something in his hand. I saw Danielle pick something up and start mumbling over it, probably something overly technological that she wanted to figure out.

"We should have had more faith in you," Kaldur said to M'Gann. Danielle coughed loudly and I frowned. He turned around to look at us. "And you as well, of course." I smiled, just a little bit.

"Yeah, you rocked this mission! Get it? Rocked?" Danielle hit Kid upside the head.

"Ignore him," Robin said. "We're all just turned you're on the team. All of you."

"Thanks, me too," M'Gann replied. I smiled just a little bit, and Danielle came up behind me.

"I think this was a good day."

.:)$(:.

"It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you."

"Agreed."

"Is that why you wouldn't help us?"

"No. This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you, nor should you solve mine for me."

"But, if you're in danger-"

"Consider this matter closed."

"Batman, Aquaman and Flash, they'd have jumped right in to fix things."

"Well, I guess if we're going to have a babysitter, a heartless machine is exactly what we need."

"Dude, harsh!"

"And inaccurate. I have a heart; carbon-steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing."

"Ah, right. I'll strive to be, uh, more accurate."

"And more respectful."

I was leaned up on one wall, just watching the whole encounter. Danielle was up at the table with the team, talking sort of to herself and sort of to everyone else about tracking the dead signal or some such something. She was fitting right in, the techies of the group accepting her already. I smiled wryly, of course they would.

I pushed myself of the wall roughly, walking away from them in an attempt to not blow something up. I was about halfway to my room when someone grabbed my shoulder, I kicked back at them on reflex and snapped around.

It was Kaldur, hands in the air and aura white with surprise.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Kaldur," I said, eyes wide.

"No, I should be the one to apologize, I forgot that you do not like physical contact." I shook my head.

"Whatever, as long as it's not skin. Did you need something?"

"I wanted to make sure you were alright. You weren't very talkative after Twister was defeated, were you injured?" I shook my head again and gave a small smile.

"Nah, just some cuts and bruises. Nothing that won't heal."

It was awkwardly quiet for a moment, I was looking at the floor and scratching my arm absentmindedly. I couldn't tell what Kaldur was liking at, or what he was waiting for. "Um, thanks for checking, though. I appreciate it."

"Your welcome," he replied, and his aura brightened just a little bit. Ah, okay. Social norms, right.

"Hey, I'm sorry if I come off as a little... pissy, prickly, whatever. I'm just not used to all... this. Social interaction. People in general. Ya know, normal stuff," I told him, reaching up to scratch the back of my head. My face was growing hot, embarrassment I guess. Kaldur nodded.

"I understand, I too was unaware of how to act after leaving Atlantis. I may not be able to help you completely, but I can give some advice?" I tilted my head to the side.

"Sure, shoot."

"It won't become easier if you don't try to make it. Avoiding the rest of the team won't help you become used to them." I bit my lip, he was right.

"Alright. I'll keep that in mind. But right now I need some time to myself." He nodded, and I turned around and walked the rest of the way to my room. If he said anything else I never heard him.

I changed into stiffer clothes, an old t-shirt and some sweatpants if found in the closet. I left my holes on, they were surprisingly comfortable, but I hung my mother's jacket in the very back of the closet, where nothing could happen to it. I knew it wasn't very late, probably only 9 or 9:30, but I felt like I was going to collapse. So I crawled into my sleeping bag and curled up in the warmth, starting at the nothing where the legs of the bed probably were.

"Goodnight, Mom," I whispered, closing my eyes. I had one thought before finally falling asleep, looking over that days events.

_'I guess today was a pretty good day.' _

.:)$(:.

**Thank you for all follows and favors!**


	6. Intermission 1: The Other Girl

This was boring.

Why did she even have to be there? Hook and Spider had it covered. The lady wasn't even that important, why would Sensei send his best after some CEO? Whatever. She might as well make the most of her time while she's there.

The girl- no older than 13, in raggedy clothing and with short, spiky brown hair that swooshed uncontrollably around her head- vaulted herself on top of the chimney and sat there, elbow on her knee and cheek in her palm.

This was boring.

She did her job for about thirty seconds. She checked her surroundings, made sure she was in fact directly adjacent to where the target was. Then she went off to space. It was about one in the afternoon, if she had to guess, the crew wouldn't be there for about seven hours. Well, at least she had some time to kill.

Down by the street she saw a bunch of tiny shops, a tea place (odd for a city that isn't in England?) and a little cafe. Cute.

"Hn," she mumbled. "How many people do you think would notice if I slid down the side of the building like back in India?" She wasn't expecting a reply. She got one anyway, from a youngish man who appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"A lot, probably. They'd probably call the cops, try to arrest you. You shouldn't do it, it's a dumb idea." The man crossed his arms. The girl's jaw tightened, and she scowled.

"Yeah, well no one asked you, Michael. Now do me a favor and get lost before I throw you off the building and use your body like a cushion." Michael just laughed coldly.

"As if that would do any good." The girl glared at him, and he glared right back. And then she jumped off the side of the building. Well then.

Michael looked surprised for a moment, but then it passed, and he scowled. And disappeared.

From the street, you wouldn't have known what had happened. You would have just seen a blur, a bird maybe? As the girl fell, she righted herself in the air as if she was standing, and the bottoms of her feet began to glow white. The white spread up her legs, and by the time it was at her waist she had slowed so much that she was just like a feather. And miraculously, nobody noticed. Maybe someone did and thought they were crazy and didn't say anything, but either way it worked for her.

As soon as she touched the ground, the white disappeared. She straightened, looked over herself. Then she wiped off her shoulders and walked towards the cafe.

.:)K(:.

Boys. Stupid stupid boys.

Why were there three boys- one with a cape, two with masks, and one with gills- sitting on _her _rooftop? The girl shook her head, and leaned against the chimney.

One of the boys, with dark hair, a dark mask, and a dark cape, was standing over the edge of the roof, looking through some binoculars at _her_ target. Another one, with a light colored costume and crazy hair coming out of the top of his mask, was munching on some chips and lounging around. The third, with darker skin and gills, was just kind of standing there.

The girl growled lowly, she still had six hours of surveillance and someone was already trying to stop her.

Sort of.

She scowled, her growl intensifying.

"Fall," she hissed, quietly enough so that none of the boys would hear. "Fall off the stupid building you stupid sons of bitches."

It never happened, of course. Only in her dreams.

.:)K(:.

The boys were too annoying. The girl couldn't stand being on the same roof as them for more than an hour, so for the rest of her waiting time, she moved to the roof next to them.

She could still see the CEO. Everything was fine.

_"Massacre."_ The girl flinched, her arm snapping up to her ear. Stupid comlink, it was always too loud.

"WHAT," she shouted back, scowling at the building in front of her.

_"Where are you?"_ The voice was deep, gravelly. Probably Hook, the girl thought.

"I'm one building away from the position, there are a bunch of boys at the original rendezvous point and they're loud and annoying and just go ahead and throw them off the building for me." Hook grunted. He thought the girl was an idiot, which is why she _knew_ he was an idiot.

_"Just get outside the building, watch for any trouble. Don't screw up, kid." _

The girl stood up and turned on her heel, glaring directly at where Hook was on the roof next to her. Hook shuddered.

"Don't you _ever_ call me kid." Then she smiled, and looked back at where Black Spider was climbing up a window. "Oh yeah, don't call me Massacre either. It's a stupid name," she added cheerfully.

And then there was a zoom, a bright flash of movement going from the building next to her to the building in front of her. One of the boys was running, right down one side an up another.

The girl blinked.

Huh.

Then there was laughing. The other boy, with both a cape and a mask, was swinging across the gap, leaving the other boy alone with Hook.

The girl almost pitied them. Almost.

The running boy zoomed up the side of the building, right where Black Spider was crawling. The latter shot webby stuff at the former, almost making him fall off it weren't for the laughing boy jumping in the way. He tried to kick Spider, but instead got pushed off the building by the falling one. Then they grappled down safely, just in time for Hook to show up with the other boy hanging from his arm. Hook tried to shoot them all with the unconscious one, instead he only launched the poor guy through a wall.

The girl's eyes went wide, her grin wider as she laughed her head off. This was the most fun she'd had in ages!

"HEEEYYYY~~~" a voice came from behind her. The girl's grin got wider, and she turned around to see a little boy, maybe 4 years old, with scruffy hair and the most sparkly eyes you would ever see.

"MAXIE!" the girl shouted, scooping the little boy up in a hug. She started tickling his stomach, making him shriek with laughter. She stopped suddenly, pointing at the carnage below. Somehow the target had managed to get outside, but just as they looked down, the two little heroes managed to slam right into each other. The two on the rooftop laughed, and the girl said, "Look how bad they're failing!" Max giggled again, pointing down at the now unconscious little heroes. The girl almost fell backwards laughing.

_"MASSACRE!" _The girl groaned, and tapped her comlink.

"Yeeeeeeees?" she replied sarcastically.

_"Why didn't you tell us there were heroes?"_ This voice was different, it belonged to Spider. The girl just rolled her eyes.

"I did. Right before you went fighting I told you about the annoying boys that you should push off the roof. Did you listen? No." She smiled. "I blame you for this~" she finished, and she heard both men growl over the link.

_"Just get down here,"_ Hook said. _"We need to take care of the heroes."_ The girl sighed dramatically, running her fingers through her bangs.

"Whatever."

.:)K(:.

"So you three junior-grade good guys thought you could stop us?" The girl sighed, already done with Spider's chatting with the captives.

The three heroes hung from the ceiling, all trapped in Spider's webbing. Hook and BS stood below them, and Massacre sat in the back with Max, just watching. The woman was trapped with Black Spider's arm wrapped around her throat, completely immobile.

"Yeah, what were you thinking?" This is Hook and Black Spider you got here! We're good at what we do, we're professionals." Massacre snorted. Professional. _She_ was a professional. _They_ were idiots.

"Why are you after her? Why is Selena Gonzalez targeted?" one of the hero boys asked.

"You're not in any position to ask questions... but _we_ are. How did you know we'd be here?" Massacre rolled her eyes and tuned out. Who cares? She just turned and walked out. No one could see her anyway.

There were crashing noises only a few seconds later, and the walls rumbled. Probably Hook, she thought. She never liked Hook, he was too loud. And annoying. And an idiot.

Fighting sounds came from the room next to her, Massacre peeked through the window. She was curious, and unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to leave until Gonzalez was dead. Joy.

Two of the heroes were trapped against the wall, stuck in Spider's webbing. Hook was about to blast them in the face, until the other hero boy came in, bright blue jumping out from the dull, and making a shield between them. They escaped, and not two seconds later was the room filled with smoke and Gonzalez deposited in a flash in front of the door.

Huh.

"They're really cool!" Max said, giggling. He climbed up Massacre's shoulders, looking in the window with wide eyes and an even bigger smile. The girl couldn't help but laugh at his adorableness.

"If you say so. I guess they're... Interesting." The blue-magic boy was failing to attack Hook, until the fast one slammed him into a wall. Then he doubled back and grabbed Gonzalez before she was webbed. Massacre wasn't entirely sure what had happened, all she knew is that one second, Hook was advancing on the fast boy, and then several explosions went off throughout the room.

"Woooooooah..." Max said, eyes like saucers.

"Shiny," Massacre agreed. And then they were talking, heroes and target on one side of the room, Hook and Spider on the other. The heroes said something garbled, no doubt because of the distance and the door, and then there was webbing on the window.

"HEY!" both of the onlookers shouted. Massacre growled, and Max pouted. The older girl was tempted to break the door down just so she could watch, but her thoughts were halted by the loud crashing noises, and vibrations in the floor. Max looked down, smiling.

"They're under us now. One of em has the girl you want, he went to the left? The other two are hiding." Massacre ruffled his hair, he was so cute with his high pitched four year old voice.

"Okay. I'll find them, you just tell me if I'm going the wrong way." She hiked Max up on her back, and then held one hand out in front of her. Waving it side to side slowly, the tips of her fingers changed colors; red, yellow, blue, brown, white, pink... She stopped, and the pink enveloped her hand.

"Huh," she mumbled. Max looked at her glowing fingers, eyes sparkling. She walked foreword, and her hand glowed brighter- with every move she made her hand would glow brighter or dimmer, until it was almost blinding.

The pink vanished. Massacre turned to look at Max. "Would you mind helping me out here?" He smiled and dropped to the floor, taking her hand. He closed his eyes, and he started glowing. Soft white spread from his closed eyes to the tips of his toes, and where he held Massacre's hand, she started glowing too. Once they were completely enveloped in white light, they sank through the floor.

One couldn't imagine the surprise and the fear on Ms. Gonzalez's face. After dropping through the ceiling, Massacre immediately slapped a hand over the CEO's mouth and a white light strapped her arms to her sides. The hand was replaced by a bright gag, and Massacre looked down to Max. He glowed again, and Massacre grabbed Gonzalez and shoved her through the wall.

They dropped three stories before someone did something, enveloping them with light and slowing the fall. It was only when they were across the block, around the back of some grocery store or something, did Massacre remove the CEO's bonds. She smiled gleefully, and waved.

"Hi!" she said, bubbly as ever. Gonzalez didn't reply. Her eyes were wide and she was shivering, just completely shaken by the whole thing. Massacre blinked, seemingly unaware of the woman's fear. "So, I'm Massacre- or that's what _they_ call me anyway, I don't really like it. It's a stupid name, don't cha think?" Gonzalez stayed silent, her mouth dropping open slightly. Massacre kicked her toe on the ground like a small child. "Aw come on, don't be shy! I don't bite," she said, giggling madly. The CEO snapped out of her trance, and started talking quickly,

"Please let me go, I don't know what I did to make you people come after me but I swear I haven't done anything to offend anyone and-"

"Woah, calm down, Lady," Massacre said, smiling. "I'll let you go in just a sec. I just have to finish my job, see?"

It was all a blur.

Massacre stepped foreward, hand glowing bright, clear red. The bind holding Gonzalez dissolved as Massacre's hand met hers, the red spreading up the older woman's arm at an alarming rate.

The woman didn't even have time to scream.

The red burst, and Gonzalez's body dropped to the ground. Only, it didn't. The poor woman looked appalled, staring down at her own dead body with tears in the corners of her eyes. Massacre's face was emotionless.

"I'm sorry about that," she said. She looked up at the woman's spirit slowly. "It's just my job." Gonzalez staggered backwards, her breath short and quick. She didn't even seem to realize that she didn't need to breathe anymore. She was dead.

Max came up behind her and hugged her legs, starting to cry. Gonzalez gave a short scream, still hyperventilating.

"We're sorry..." Max said softly, squeezing her tighter. Her eyes softened, no one could resist the cuteness. "Please don't cry..."

She didn't. Massacre breathed a sigh of relief.

"I like you," she said. "You're a good person, unlike a lot of people I kill." Gonzalez looked confused. "So I'm gonna give you a choice." Max let the woman go, smiling softly. "You have two options; you can either stay on this plane of existence as a spirit, really just a ghost. You can build up enough power to do amazing things, maybe even be seen again, like Max." Said boy's grin grew. "Or, I can send you on to the afterlife. Don't ask me what it's like or where you'll go, I don't know. I just know that it could be a lot better than what's here." Ms. Gonzalez calmed her breathing. She stood up straight, dusted off her skirt, and said as calmly as she could muster,

"I'd like to move on." The girl smiled.

"Alright then." Her hands glowed red again, and she grabbed the woman's hand. She was gone in seconds, leaving her alone in the darkness.

Wait, alone? Where was Max?

Oh, no...

Her cheek stung for a moment, like it was hit by a little rock. She touched it gingerly, the little star tattoo that covered the small scar was glowing black, not that she could see.

**_"Hello, Keres,"_** a voice echoed throughout the area. It sounded old, shriveled, mischevous, evil. Massacre- Keres- shuddered, eyes wide with fear. She gulped, clenching her fists. Her nails dug into her palms, there was probably blood. **_"How has my girl been doing?"_**

"I'm not _your_ girl, you bastard," she whispered.

**_"Sure you are,"_** the voice replied. _**"You're my host, therefore you are mine, little Keres."**_

Something inside Keres snapped. She stood rigidly, scowling at the darkness. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew there was a single red eye, staring from behind her, watching her every move. She ignored it.

Instead she chose to walk, nowhere in particular, just away, humming one of her favorite songs. The voice kept speaking to her, but every word was ignored. It had been haunting her for the past four years, why should she give it the satisfaction of her fear tonight?

.:)K(:.

**I've edited this slightly since originally posting it, and I would like to clear up any misconceptions you might have about it; if you are confused, just ask! I will explain as fully as I can without spoiling the rest of the story. **

**And no, for the people who might think so, Keres is not Avra. She will return in later chapters, where more of her story will be revealed. **

**Review? **


	7. Chapter 5: Camping Part 1

_'Thoughts'_  
"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Beam"**

_'I guess today was a pretty good day.'_

Mount Justice  
July 20, 21:32 EDT

"Seen it. Seen it. Seen it. Don't want to see it," Wally's constant chant came from the living room area. Things had cooled down since the Mister Twister fiasco, and he and I were on relatively civil terms. Relatively. I walked into the living room and slumped over the back of the couch, blinking drunkenly at his uncharacteristically dull aura.

"Boring. Don't own any stocks. Already got a slap chop." I snorted loudly, and his aura rolled with annoyance. "Seen it. Seen it. Seen it."

"Nothing on?" I asked. Might as well start a random pointless conversion to try and quell my boredom. Danielle and Robin were talking tech somewhere in the atrium thing, Kaldur was down by the pool, Megan was doing something in her room, and Superboy had disappeared off the face of the earth- not like we'd do anything together even if he was here- so I was left with Wally for entertainment.

"Nothing! At all! I can't believe we get six hundred channels on this thing and there's _nothing _on. Do you have a show you like? I could watch something stupid with you here." I blinked. Raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeaahhhh..." I scoffed and turned back to the front the room, Wally was the only one who forgot I was blind, and it was like he forgot every other minute.

I felt someone move behind me, and Wally was off the couch in a second. Megan? Turning around I saw I was right.

"Hey there," Wally said coolly, leaning up against the wall.

"Oh, hello, Wally," Megan replied cheerfully.

"Hey, are you busy?... uhhh... I mean... What's going on?" I smirked; '_Smooth Wally, smooth._'

"Not much, I was just going to make a sandwich. Would you like one?" _'Oh Megan, a heart of gold. Unfortunately..._'

"Oh, no thanks. Besides, I pretty much cleaned out everything that was in here anyway." Stupid speedster metabolism. "Which reminds me, someone _needs_ to go shopping. You got anything planned for tonight?"

"No. I was just planning on hanging around the cave tonight."

"Oh, really? That's cool! Hey... uhm... Here's an idea, do you, like, want to go to the movies?"

"Sure I would love to! But... I don't have any money."

"Oh. Me neither... How about surfing? Do you want to go surfing?" He made a dramatic gesture, and Megan shook her head in the background. "You and I could hit the waves, I could teach you how to surf Kid Flash style!"

"Wouldn't it be better in the daytime?"

"Oh... I guess you're right, probably too dark out." I was holding back my laughter by now, this was just too good. Wally's aura was looking burned out, all of his flirting was a failure, and Megan was completely oblivious! If only Danielle was here... The room was filled with silence- aside from my stifled laughter, of course- and the two stood in front of each other awkwardly.

"There's a full moon out tonight," Wally started, and I furrowed my eyebrows. The full moon is when it's a whole circle, right? "Want to sit outside and look at the stars?"

"Oh, that sounds nice," Megan replied.

"Great! We can build a fire and everything."

"Oh! A fire?" I shook my head slowly, Wally you idiot.

"Yeah, you know, a nice roaring campfire-" I coughed at him and raised an eyebrow. "Oh! Wait, sorry, I forgot."

"You seem to forget a lot of things, don't you?" I cut in. Megan giggled a little bit, and Wally's head hung slightly.

"It's alright, Wally, as long as I don't sit too close." I repeat, a heart of gold.

"Great! Tonight would be perfect! We can roast marshmallows and everything!"

"Marshmallows? I've never had a marshmallow before!"

"Same here." I jumped off the couch and walked up to them. "Do you mind if I join in?"

"Uh, sure, I guess," Wally replied slowly. "But, there's not much else for you to do, staring at the stars and all?" I crossed my arms.

"Who cares, there will be marshmallows and I've heard their delicious."

"If you think you'll like marshmallows, wait until you try s'mores," he replied. "You know, with graham crackers, chocolate and stuff."

"I've heard of them, but I've never had one," Megan said, holding her hand to her cheek. "Can we make those?"

"What do _you_ think?"

"Yes!"

"Great!" Wally shouted.

"Oh, this is going to be very exciting!" I smiled, and shifted my weight on my feet. Wally zoomed off shouting something unintelligible, and Megan went somewhere in the opposite direction.

What just happened?

Megan came back a moment later, the rest of the team following behind her. "I invited everyone else to come too! I hope you don't mind?" I just nodded my head, smiling.

"Nah, the more the merrier. I was gonna bring Danielle anyway." There was another zoom, and my hair was blown back as Wally appeared before us, arms full of something.

"Gathered a few chairs, some firewood, scrounged the pantry for graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows and now we'll cozy up outside-" His aura went white as he paused, "just the _three_ of us?"

"We're going to need a lot more stuff than that if we're gonna go camping!" Robin said.

"I hope you don't mind, I invited all the others to join in the fun with the s'mores!"

.:)$(:.

It was cool outside, but in a nice way.

Everything had been set up around a fire, with rocks on one side, logs on another, and some chairs behind them for the people who weren't good with fire, mainly Megan and Kaldur. There were two tents, one behind the lawn chairs, and another somewhere between the logs and the rocks. I was sitting there, right inside the mouth of the tent, curled up in my mother's jacket.

No one else was in the tents, they were all lounging by the logs or in the chairs. Wally and Robin were to my left, Wally sitting on top of a log and Robin lying down in front of it. Between them they had a bag, probably full of marshmallows, judging by Wally's almost constant chewing.

Kaldur and Megan were behind them, sitting in the chairs and joining in on the s'more fun. Danielle was directly across from me, her bright orange illuminating the rocks she was leaning against. Superboy was on my right, hunched over a log. His aura was dull, bored, unimpressed.

Camping was nice, I guess. It was definitely better than hanging out in the city. The noises around me were... pleasant. I liked the sounds of the grasshoppers, the leaves blowing in the wind, all that stuff.

But not the fire popping. I stared at where Danielle told me it was roaring, eyebrows furrowed. I could see the dim outline of the stones surrounding it, the stick Robin was holding over it to roast his marshmallows, but not the fire itself. I shivered, and scooted back in the tent a bit.

"The was a _great_ idea, don't you think Wally? Camping in the great outdoors!" Robin's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I don't remember inviting you. Besides, I didn't say anything about _camping_. I said a camp _fire_." Wally snapped back. There were some gross noises as he swallowed another s'more, and continued, "Big difference between just a campfire and the whole camping thing. I don't like camping... outside..." Danielle snorted.

"City boy all the way," she mumbled, and Robin and I laughed. Wally's aura flashed with annoyance, but then faded into that annoying pink as he turned towards Megan.

"Unless of course I'm camping with that special someone," he said smoothly. I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"Dude, kinda bordering on creepy," Robin cut in, and Wally's aura went back to its usual yellow.

"Well, I think all of us camping is a wonderful idea!" Megan said, completely oblivious.

"She doesn't seem to think so," Wally said.

"She's probably on a sugar overload," Robin replied.

"Thanks to Wally, I get to try s'mores for the first time!" She said gleefully, and her aura brightened all the more. I closed my eyes and layed back in the tent.

"Can someone throw me food? The more sugar the better," I said, raising a finger in the air. A bag of marshmallows hit my stomach, making me sit up in surprise. "Thanks."

Quiet conversations continued for a bit, and I stared off at the roof of the ten whilst stuffing my face with marshmallows, perfectly content with the situation.

"So, this is what you do when you go camping?" Superboy gruffly interrupted my contentedness. "Sleep in these flimsy things called "tents" and sit around the fire?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much about it so if you feel like heading home I can sit out here with Ms. M... ALONE." Guess who.

"You're about as subtle as a train wreck, you know that?"

"You're not going to catch any fish unless you go fishing dude." Pause. "Sorry. No offense." _'Huh?'_ Awkward pause.

"No, usually you sit around the campfire and tell stories," Robin said. I could hear his grin.

"Oh! I would love to hear your story, Kaldur," Megan said cheerfully. I sat up, curious. "Could you tell us how you became Aqualad?"

"I was thinking more of a ghost story type of thing, but I guess... Whatever," Robin said.

"Oh, I suppose I could do that if you do not think it will be too boring."

"Not at all! I would love to hear it!"

Danielle got up and grabbed something from beside him, before making her way over to my tent and plopping down beside me. She held out whatever she picked up, and I grabbed it.

Chocolate! Love! Yes!

We almost never had chocolate before joining the team, it was just a luxury we couldn't afford.

"Well, I grew up in the city of Shayeris, which is a city in Atlantis. Surface dwellers think all Atlanteans are the same, but our kingdom has many cities, many people, many cultures." Kaldur's aura was slowly fading from its normal blue to a soft violet, he was envisioning the memory perfectly. I tilted my head to the side, I wondered what it was like.

"When I was twelve, I completed my education and began my mandatory service in the military, which is standard for all at that age. After a while I was transferred to the prestigious Conservatory of Sorcery in the Atlantean capital of Poseidonis.

"Queen Mera is the head mistress of the Conservatory and wife of King Orin, Aquaman. It was a very different time for me. It was very difficult, as it would be for anyone at age fourteen I suppose, but also a time in my life where I met friends that I know will be with me for a lifetime." I blinked, and turned so that I was laying on my stomach, munching on my chocolate and my marshmallows. Mandatory military service at twelve years old? I would have died.

"Then came a day... a horrible day when Poseidonis was attacked by the Ocean Master. I can remember it vividly, as if it happened only yesterday. It was the day Aquaman nearly met his end." Danielle leaned foreword, completely caught up in the story.

"Aquaman and Ocean Master fought for what seemed like hours. When Aquaman and Ocean Master clashed, it seemed to shake the very foundation of the city. Ocean Master had gained the upper hand and nearly defeated Aquaman." He paused. "Correction; Aquaman _was_ defeated.

"Garth, a fellow student, and I intervened on the King's behalf. It was the only thing we could think of doing. The danger did not occur to us, the only thing that mattered to us at the time was that our king was in trouble.

"It may have been one of the most foolish things Garth and I had ever done, as we nearly met our own end. We had no hope of defeating him whatsoever, but the time we spent engaged in battle against the Ocean Master was time enough for our king to recover.

"That was all he needed as Aquaman finally triumphed over the Ocean Master! He was able to drive us away from the city and save us all!" He paused, his aura going blue for a moment. "Aquaman is a being of two worlds. On the surface he fights for justice for all beings. Under the sea he is a leader to many. Both carry the weight of responsibilities, overwhelming responsibilities only even the best of men can carry for so long. Even Aquaman cannot do both forever." His aura went back to the light violet, and my eyes drooped just looking at it.

_'Shiny...'_

"Realizing that on the surface both Batman and Green Arrow had apprentices that could one day take over their respective mantels, King Orin had been contemplating the same idea. With this idea in mind, he approached both Garth and myself with the possibility of becoming his protégés. I must admit, the possibility intrigued me immediately. I had never been to the surface world, and I am the first to admit that I am a bit of an adventure. Many is the day in class that I would dream of visiting distant oceans, and possibly one day even the surface world itself.

"Both Garth and I seriously considered the King's offer. Garth ultimately chose to continue his studies with Queen Mera at the Conservatory of Sorcery. For me, however, the chance to visit the surface world was a dream come true.

"So at the age of fourteen, I became Aqualad. I miss my friends. Garth, Tula..." Kaldur'd aura flashed from violet to light pink, before returning to his normal blue. "But the chance to wor with my mentor and King was an opportunity I could not pass up. I like to think the work I am doing makes a difference. The rest of the story you know. Aquaman brought Aqualad to the surface world... and now I am here with you."

Everything was silent for a moment, except the popping of the godforsaken fire. Kaldur sure had a way with words, I wondered if everyone in Atlantis spoke so formally? Megan broke the silence.

"Wow, so you _wanted_ to be Aqualad?"

"Yes. When the opportunity arose, I could think of no other path."

"Yeah?" Wally cut in. "If you think he wanted to be Aqualad so bad, let me tell you about how I got started." I sighed, and reached for another marshmallow. Here we go...

"It literally goes back a couple of generation... Each generation started with a BANG! Literally!

"Jay Garrick was in a freak lab accident. Boom! There it is! During the 40's and 50's he was everywhere! The fastest man alive!

"Jay Garrick was the world's first Flash!"

"I've heard of him," Danielle said. "Are you related to him or something?" she asked.

"Ah, not technically, but we celebrate Thanksgiving together sometimes and- not the point." Danielle and Robin snorted at him, and I smiled. "Then one day this guy comes along, a huge fan of the Flash, wanting to know all about this Jay Garrick- back in those days Jay didn't really hide his identity.

"He contacts Jay and the two spend hours talking about his adventures and about the accident that turned him into the Flash. This guy even went so far as to _re-create_ the accident that created the original... But where Jay Garrick's accident was a total freak thing, this guy recreated the accident under laboratory conditions. He set the whole thing up in a lab and _tried_ to make it happen!

"Result? Still a big explosion! But, low and behold, he becomes Speedy McSpeed-Speed himself!

"Now he's the Flash! Well, not the original Flash, but the new Flash... The Flash we all know! I mean, there's the Jay Garrick Flash and now there's the new Flash. You know, it just occurred to me that they could probably use different names. Anyway..." I looked up at Danielle.

"Is it just me who's having trouble following?" I whispered.

"Eh... He could be clearer... A lot clearer..."

"This time he's even faster than Flash, well the old Flash... It gave him even _more_ speed!" Wally was waving his hands wildly with his story, even though nothing particularly exciting had happened just yet. _'I guess it's good to know this stuff? Sure. I might as well tell myself that.'_ "Okay, so check this! The second Flash is a fan of the first Flash- Jay Garrick. It turns out great minds think alike, cause I was a fan of the Flash- the second one, not the first one. Well, I was a fan of Jay Garrick, the first one after I got to know him. He was a little before my time.

"Long story short, one day I was in my uncle's house, stumbled across his notebooks and got the shock of a lifetime! That was the day I found out that my uncle was _the Flash!_

"Once the shock passed a bit, I kept reading. He was keeping a journal of all his experiences and experiments! Especially the one that made him the Flash, the second one, not the first-"

"WE GET IT ALREADY!" Robin, Danielle and I shouted all at once.

"Eh, anyway, when I found _that_ out, I would kind of keep hinting to my uncle that the Flash could maybe use a partner. I tried to convince him that the Flash could _use_ and probably _needed_ a partner. I mean, come on, by this time Bats alread had Robbie over here and Green Arrow had Speedy! This was a no-brainer!

"I've got to admit, Flash was a bit hesitant at first." His aura went murky pink for a split second, and I bet the lie in his sentence was 'a bit hesitant.' Just going by how he told his story, I bet Flash had been at his wits end from the constant stream of nonsensical words that flowed from Wally's mouth.

"Does this sound confusing to anyone else?" Superboy asked. I raised my hand.

"Just let me finish and you will be confused no more, Supey.

"So, having seen his journal just like he saw the previous Flash's, I try to recreate the experiment with my _own _chemistry set. And what do you know? I was able to do it!"

"The experiment actually worked?" Kaldur asked skeptically.

"Well... Not at first, actually. It didn't happen at first, but a couple of weeks later... I was off and running!" Cue face palm at horrid pun. "I couldn't wait to show Flash! When he saw that I had powers, how could he _not _want me as a partner?

"You guys should've seen his face when I showed him! This time he _jumped _at the chance to have a partner!" Lies. "Flash couldn't wait to show the world!" Slightly less of a lie. "The Flash was beyond ecstatic! He couldn't contain his excitement! It was the greatest day in the history of the world!" Now he was just exaggerating, and it was making my head hurt.

"Why, you ask?"

"Just for the record, we didn't," Robin cut in.

"That's the day the world got _Kid Flash!_"

The entire camp was silent.

"You. Are. Welcome," Wally finished. I rubbed my temples and grabbed another marshmallow.

"Yeah, we're all thrilled you're so speed-capable."

"What's the matter, jealous?"

"Sheeyeah, _right!_ Jealous of _you?_" Boys and their egos, we could be here all night.

"Can you tell us about how you got started, Robin?" Megan asked, munching on a s'more. Wally burst into crazy laughter, snorting crazily for a few minutes.

"Are you _kidding _me? Bats won't even let him tell you his real name!" he said. He kept laughing, but stopped suddenly, aura turning murkier, guilty? I looked at Robin, his aura was turning a dark shade of violet. Was he remembering something? Usually a memory was lighter, maybe it wasn't a pleasant memory...

"Uh, you'll probably get a better origin story out of Supey over here," Wally said quickly. I guess he'd said something pretty offensive to Robin, even if I didn't catch it, and he was trying to patch it up?

Wally was an idiot.

"But you already told me his story. Didn't you?" Megan said nervously. She was probably as confused as I was. "You said that the three of you rescued him from Cadmus."

"Yeah, we did."

"Yes. Chronologically, Superboy is only 16 weeks old," Kaldur said.

"...And you have no memory of things before being rescued?"

"I have some memories," Superboy started. "...from the G-Gnome. It would teach me about the world outside while I was onthe containment pod."

"So you _can_ remember things? When you were in the containment pod they would feed you information and you could remember it, right?"

"I guess so." Superboy' aura was turning dark, muddy blue, completely out of character from what I'd seen so far. I know I've only known him for about two, maybe three weeks, but I'd never seen him so afraid before.

_Fear of the future, fear of self expression, fear of facing or speaking the truth. _

"Well, if you can remember what they taught you, you must've been thinking about things as they fed you information. What did you think about?" Megan asked.

"When I was in the containment pod, I was fed... information. I really didn't start thinking for myself until after I got out."

"Well, what kinds of things do you think about now?"

The entire camp was silent again.

"The one thing... that's always on my mind..." I could almost feel the anticipation in the air, and I saw everyone lean foreword just a little bit.

"Destroying Superman."

.:)$(:.

**I got my comic back! There was supposed to be school today, but apparently the power was knocked out everywhere and now we have a day off cause of the cold! Right after our winter weather make-up days, ironically. So, I spent the last several hours finishing this. I have no life.  
Anyway, I got very limited feedback on the last chapter and that somewhat concerns me? I want to hope that it was in part because the website did stupid literally an hour after I posted it, but I'm still worried? I'll touch more on Keres in later chapters, for those of you who reviewed but never replied to my PMs...**

**Review?**


	8. Chapter 6: Camping Part 2

_'Thoughts'_

"Speech"

_"Telepathy"_

**"Zeta-Beam"**

_'Destroying Superman.'_

Mount Justice

July 20, 23:09 EDT

The entire camp was silent.

Superboy was hunched over more than usual, his already dark blue aura getting even darker. Robin's was dark violet, but undertones of yellow and red showing through more and more as the silence went on. Everyone else was normal, if not a little whiter.

But hey, who could blame them, a claim of destroying the beloved Man of Steel had just been thrown around the camp fire, I'd be a little surprised too. Heck, I WAS. I just tried not to show it.

"Robin! Robin!" Wally shouted, shaking the Boy Wonder out of his daze. "Robin, did you hear what he said?"

"Hunh? What?" My eye twitched. Oblivious boys...

"Did you hear what Superboy said?" Wally asked, panicked. "He just said he wants to take down Superman!"

"Oh, shut up Wally," I said sitting up straighter. Superboy stood up and walked a few steps away from the camp, dark blue swirling.

"Are you serious? Superboy?" Megan asked, still innocent as ever.

"...It's how I feel... Sometimes." He paused. "What if that's why I was created? What if that was the only reason I was created?" he asked. The blue started quivering more than it swirled, but Superboy couldn't really be shaking, could he?

"That's not possible!" Megan said.

"Yeah!" Wally agreed. "Look at all the good stuff you've done so far!"

"What would be the possible reasoning behind this thinking?" Kaldur asked.

"I just don't feel... I don't know what I feel. Sometimes _thoughts_ happen."

"Don't worry about that, Supey," Danielle cut in. "_Everyone_ thinks, no need to feel concerned. We all have those what-if situations, just ignore them."

"Yeah, those are silly thoughts! You should just push them out of your head," Megan said.

"He does have a valid point," Robin said pointedly. I stared blankly at him, though I doubt he noticed. "We don't really know anything about what they did to him yet."

"We _know_ he's one of the good guys, and we know he's part of this team!" Wally shouted. He stood up and grabbed Superboy around the shoulder, and some of the blue in the latter's aura faded.

"In my world, actions speak louder than words," Kaldur said. "Superboy has proven his intentions with actions."

"Yeah! You put those thoughts outta your head Supey!" Wally held out something towards him. "Here, have another s'more." Superboy just stood there as Wally went back to his seat.

"Thanks... Everyone." Wally and Robin mumbled something to each other, and Danielle got up to pull Superboy back to his seat on the log. And then the camp was silent.

"Hey! You haven't this about your story," Wally said, turning back to Megan. "What's the dealio with you, M'gann?"

"Oh... Okay. Since all of you told your stories... I guess... Well, I'm from Mars." I covered up my mouth and tried not to laugh, silly Megan. "Ugn, hello, Megan! You guys already know that!

"All Martians live in underground tunnels since the surface is uninhabitable. Our family lives are very intertwined.

"As you already know, we mostly communicate telepathically. The form of communication we use helps large Martian families maintain a sense of community and stay closer."

"Large? How many are in your family?" Wally asked.

"Martian families are usually quite large. I have twelve sisters and seventeen brothers! In my extended family I have over three hundred cousins." My jaw dropped, I couldn't imaging having one sibling, let alone twenty-nine.

"Holy crap!" Danielle shouted, her aura flashing violent orange white. Wally was in front of Megan in a second.

"Three hundred?"

"Yes."

"Are they all hot girls like you?" I face palmed, Danielle face palmed, Megan went white.

"Wow, you are a class act," Robin said.

"Dude! Three hundred girls that look like her? That's a planet I want to visit!"

"We'll, half of my cousins are males, but yes, most Martians look very similar... Mostly green like myself and Uncle J'onn. But there are others with... Differences." I narrowed my eyes. Why was Megan lying? What in that sentence was she lying about? About halfway through her sentence her aura had gone from bright magenta with bits of violet to a muddy, dirty pink; she's lied about _something_. I frowned a bit, and kept listening.

"There are also Martians that are red and white. Some on my planet do not see the whites as equals. My parents were both green-" more lies, "and I was raised in what you would call a "liberal" type of environment. My family- I have no issue with white Martians.

"Others were not as tolerant... and the treatment of the White Martians was especially horrible."

Yay racism! It happens everywhere...

"How did you happen to come to earth?" Kaldur asked, holding his stick out over where the fire was supposed to be.

"Of all the brothers, sisters, parents. aunts, and uncles, the family member I was closest to was uncle J'onn. We had a great relationship!"

Lie.

"We would watch his exploits on Earth with the rest of the Justice League! He grew to be a true beacon of hope and stood for what our society could achieve. He became the most famous Martian in history! Upon his return to Mars it was declared a planet wide day of celebration."

Not a lie.

"When he came back it was _not_ just for the adulation of our population. He also had a specific purpose in mind. Having learned ol about all of you- Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash and Speedy- J'onn decided now was the time to introduce a _younger_ Martian hero to Earth."

Lie.

"J'onn J'onzz came to Mars and declared he would hold a competition to find the next Martian champion that would be returning with him to fly among the heroes of Earth! I decided I would enter the contest, as did what seemed like half the Martian population. I, however, was coming to Earth."

Lies. My stomach started tossing, and my hands and feet kept twitching; was it the lying or the excessive marshmallows? Probably both.

"The competition was fierce.. and dangerous. It was exciting and consued or touched the lives or every single Martian on the planet."

Danielle sat next to me and offered me something, I took it for curiosity's sake. It was a bottle of water... Did I visibly look sick?

"At first, Uncle J'onn seemed as if he didn't want me to compete. I thought maybe it was the he did not want me coming to Earth. I had seen some of his adventures, as they were life-threatening and dangerous."

An hint of truth.

"But I was not going to let that stop me. I was determined to win! From everything I had seen and heard of Earth up until that point, I found that I... loved it."

Megan was confusing me. She kept switching between murky and normal, and I could no longer tell exactly what parts of her statements were true.

"I wanted to come see it for myself. I would not be bested! I won! The whole competition!

"My heart soared! I was coming to Earth! This was the most exciting time of my life! Now I am here with all of you, and I am part of the team! I truly love it!"

The last part wasn't a lie. That eased my mind slightly, but only just.

"We are happy you're here with us as well, M'gann," Kaldur said.

"You could say that again!" Wally shouted. Danielle stood up and hugged M'gann, who was standing with Robin.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think I've had one s'more too many," Robin said. I groaned in agreement, and they all laughed. "Anyway, I'm going to hit the old sleeping bag."

"Yes! This has been such a wonderful evening, but I am excited to sleep in a tent!" '_Oh, M'gann, your childlike fascination with the simplest of things never ceases to amaze me. Of course, that's slightly hypocritical given my new obsession with marshmallows_.'

"I'm right behind you," Wally said, jumping out of his chair. Robin grabbed his elbow just as Danielle punched his shoulder.

"Yeah, but you're sleeping in this tent right over here," Robin said as he dragged the speedster away.

"Hey, next time, you think we should go camping for real, like, at a real camping place instead of our own backyard?" Wally asked.

"It's all well and good when you can't see anything," I replied, sitting up and backing further into the tent so that Megan could fit through. Danielle climbed in shortly after and zipped the tent flap behind her. It cut off the direct heat from the fire, and I relaxed on impulse.

The other two started shuffling things around to get ready for sleep, I just draped my mother's jacket over my shoulders and flopped down on a pillow, back to the both of them. There was no way I was going to be able to get to sleep in the direct light of two people so bright.

Eventually the movement stopped, there was a short exchange of goodnights. I stayed silent.

I couldn't sleep, though, even with the empty black of the tent wall blocking out the brightness. What I knew was eating away at me; why would Megan- M'gann, whatever I was supposed to call her in this situation- why was she lying to everyone? I should have been able to get over it, but no, this was a serious matter she was lying about.

Maybe she had a good reason? Danielle never lied to me, she knew it was pointless, but she said that everyone lies, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad ones. What would Megan's reason be, though? What would count as a good reason in this situation?

"Avra? Are you okay?" Megan asked. "You're shaking! Should I wake up Danielle?"

"No, no, it's... it's fine."

"Oh, um, if you're sure..?"

"You said Danielle's asleep?" I asked. I rolled over on my back, staring at the slightly pink-orange ceiling.

"Yes, she's been asleep for about ten minutes now." '_Ten minutes! I've been panicking for that long?'_

"You're my friend, right Megan?" I blurted out.

"Yes, I like to think so. _Am I_ your friend?" she asked. The tent ceiling started tinting bright yellow; I glanced at Megan out of the corner of my eye and saw that she was absolutely terrified of my response.

"Yeah." My reply was halfhearted, I bit my lip. "Yeah, you are," I said more forcefully. "You're the first real friend I've made since I've met Danielle, and that's saying something. I'm glad I met you." The yellow was gone almost instantly. "I'm just... I'm kind of confused about something."

"Huh?" Megan asked, the yellow creeping back.

"Why... why would you lie about your own origin story? I know parts of it were true, like, the parts where you were describing conditions on Mars. But from what I can tell, Martian Manhunter didn't know who you were before you came to Earth, and there sure as hell wasn't any competition." The yellow was pulsating, lashing out violently like solar flares.

"Um, well, uh, y-you see-" Megan stuttered, and I could her her voice strain like she was trying not to cry. I sat up quickly, reaching out to grab her shoulder. Danielle would be proud of me if she was awake.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Megan! Please don't- just, don't freak out, please!" '_Megan's crying, oh god, how do help crying people?!'_

And then we were both panicking.

"I-it's just, it was horrible there, and, and everyone will hate me!"

"I won't hate you! I swear I won't hate you! We're friends, remember?" I said back, pulling her in an awkward shoulder hug. We sat like that for a few inured, both of us blubbering nonsense until we calmed down enough to breathe properly.

And then it clicked. What would the team think of _me_ if I told them about... that. I perfectly understood Megan's fears and why I hadn't realized it earlier was beyond me.

"God, I'm such an _idiot_!" I shouted, and Danielle sat up straight.

"WHA?! Huh? Whyou gonna be so loud ya shtupid..." She mumbled, slowly sinking back down on her pillow. Soon she was back to snoring, and Megan and I both giggled.

"Anyway," I started, wiping the tears from my eyes, "you don't have to tell me. I, I get it now, I do. And as your... as your friend, I should really trust you." Megan's aura faded back to its normal pink, and started pulsating in a rhythm... like a little heartbeat.

"But you're right, I shouldn't lie to people. I'm just scared of what they'll think of me..." I tried my best to smile at her.

"If it helps at all, I won't think any less of you. We _all_ have skeletons in our closets, even me and Danielle. _Especially_ me and Danielle, actually."

We both relaxed, slumped back on our pillows. I was about to fall asleep- a miracle, I know- when Megan whispered,

"There was no competition, I'm just a runaway." I turned towards her. "Uncle J'onn had never met me before he found me on his ship, you were right about all of that. But he was very nice to me! As soon as he got permission from my parents he made me his protege, and we got to know each other very quickly." Every word was true. I smiled and nodded nodded, and she rolled over. "What about you and Danielle? What are your skeletons?"

"Well... you'll have to ask Danielle yourself. I have no right to divulge her secrets. But as for me... You promise not to tell the rest of the team, right? I won't tell them about you, I swear." She nodded vigorously. "Okay, I've already told the Justice League the basics of this, but I never told them the full story. I've... I've killed people- well, one person I can remember." I paused, Megan didn't do or say anything. "It was when I was little, I had no control of my powers whatsoever. There were... two? I think two men, they were trying to kidnap me. I know one of them died. It's hard for me to remember what happened after... I think... His memories got jumbled with mine, I can still remember his old address. I don't really remember much after that, just... darkness. I don't really remember anything between that incident and when Danielle found me... It's kind of weird, now that I think about it."

We were both quiet for a minute, just listening to Danielle's soft snores. And then Megan glomped me, making me scream in terror.

"Oh! Right! Sorry, I forgot about the no-touching rule," she said, giggling. I shook my head.

"You're fine," I said, and smiled. "We're all fine."

"Yeah, yeah, that's great," Danielle cut in, raising a hand an over her head. "Now could you shut up and GO TO SLEEP!"

.:)$(:.

**Okay, so, I'm posting from my cellphone right now, I can fix the format of the opening bit after I get home. **

**Thank you guest for pointing out my mistake in the last chapter, I'll fix that ASAP. Thank you all new followers and favorites, your support is much appreciated. **


	9. Chapter 7: Drop Zone

_'Thoughts'  
_"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Beam"**

_'Now could you shut up and GO TO SLEEP!' _

Mount Justice  
July 22, 17:43 EDT

"No, you have to attach the [jargon] in the [jargon], or else [babble babble babble consequences]!"

"Alright, alright, I get it! Like this?"

"Yeah, actually, that's... How did you do that so fast, it took me weeks to assemble one of these!"

"I guess I'm just a fast learner. Have you already programmed it or should I practice my coding, too?" Danielle asked. Robin just sighed, and they started debating again.

Oh joy.

Robin and Danielle had been arguing over the coffee table about some technological _thing_ Batman had given them two hours ago, and I'm sure they both could have gotten it finished sooner if they'd just shut up.

"So now you have to do-"

"I know how to do that, I'm not a kid! Quit lecturing me, _mom_!"

"Well how about _you_\- hold on..." I sat up from my place on the couch. Robin was holding a hand to his ear, and Danielle's head was cocked to the side with her hand above the machine.

"That was Batman," Robin said, jumping up. "He said we need to report for a mission. Do neither of you have com-links?" I shook my head and followed behind them as they struggled to carry the whatsits to wherever Batman was waiting. This should be interesting.

By the time we ran in, everyone else was already there. They were facing Batman, who was gesturing to nothing.

Huh?

"Isla Santa Prisca," Batman said. "This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal neosteroid- a strength enhancing drug sold under the street name "Venom.""

Danielle tried to set down the stuff as quietly as possible, the others seemed to be following Batman's gestures. Was there a chalkboard I couldn't see or something?

"Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory is still operating at full capacity. But all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off. That's where this team comes in." He turned towards us and Danielle jumped up off the floor, standing as straight as a board.

"This is a covert recon mission only. Observe and report. If the Justice League needs to intervene, it will." I shivered; had he always been this scary?

"The plan requires two drop zones," he said, turning away from us again. I heard little beeping from where he was standing, and what the hell was he looking at?! "Danielle will be staying in the cave and retrieving data remotely."

"So who's in charge?" Robin asked. Batman paused.

"Work that out between you."

.:)$(:.

Caribbean Sea  
July 22, 20:08 ECT

They made me leave my jacket.

Bastards.

It would be too much of a hassle, they said, it's just get in the way and/or destroyed, they said, nya nya nyah. Instead they'd made me wear a Kevlar-Spandex something or other, just a long sleeve shirt and long pants, all skintight.

I'd never admit it to any of them, but I actually found myself enamored with the fabric; sometimes I caught myself rubbing my fingers over my wrist or the back of my neck, the texture was just so nice! But I still didn't feel right without my jacket.

My gloves had also forcibly been swapped for fingerless ones, which made me extremely nervous. So far, the change hadn't hurt anything. As long as it stayed that way I'd be alright.

"We're approaching Santa Prisca," Megan said, cutting through my thoughts. "Drop zone A in 30." Kaldur stood, his chair melting away, and he tapped his belt before saying he was ready. "Putting Bioship in camouflage mode."

Imagine my surprise when, as we descended, a hole opened up in the floor and Kaldur jumped out. It was another three or so minutes before I heard him over the coms, telling us about how the security had been patched and we could move in.

"Drop zone B," Megan said, and everyone stood. I knew this much about the plan.

Megan raised her hand and something fell in front of my face, like a rope? It decided to attach itself to my belt, though from what I could tell, everyone else was doing it manually. Thanks a ton, Megan.

"How cool is this?" Wally asked, sounding extremely excited.

"Very nice," Megan replied. She rippled black for a minute, and Wally went white.

"Uh, that works too... Hey Supey! Not too late to put on the new stealth tech!" he said, turning his attention to the Superboy in the corner.

"No capes, no tights. No offense." He crossed his arms; I snorted. I didn't care that I was in the tights category, I'd have to remember to tell Danielle about it later.

"It totally works for you..." Megan was pinker than usual. "In that you can totally do good work in those clothes!" She made a thumbs up, but he turned away. She was so stuck on him I thought I was gonna be sick.

Megan rippled black again, and the floor fell out from under me. My first time being higher than thirty feet up and nobody bothered to warn me, oh joy! It took all of my willpower not to scream and blow our cover, though I'm pretty sure there was an unbecoming squeak somewhere during the descent.

The next shock came when Superboy crashed from the sky without a line. I'm positive I made some sort of sound then. If Danielle was watching she was probably laughing her ass off.

_"No, you know what, I'm positive that whether she's watching or not, she can feel my waves of frustration from across the ocean and is on the floor laughing her ass-Ugh. They're arguing.'_

Robin was whisper-yelling at Superboy for almost creating a seismic event or some such something._ 'How many bees were up his ass?'_

"Aqualad, drop B is go," Megan said through the comm, finally landing.

"Head for the factory. I'll track your GPS and rendezvous asap."

"Roger that."

Robin motioned us foreword, and everyone took off running.

.:)$(:.

There were people up ahead. I couldn't see any distinct forms, but there was a colorful... reflection? Auras were bouncing off the trees. It was almost like an afterglow.

"Did you hear that?" Superboy hissed, freezing.

"Uh, no," Wally replied. "Wait, is this a super hearing thing?"

"You do have great ears," Megan said dreamily. Her aura grew even pinker.

"Okay Rob, now what?" Wally asked.

At some point Robin had disappeared. I could feel the trail he left, and I saw the fading red in the trees above. No one else seemed to have a clue.

"Man, I hate it when he does that," Wally said.

"Superboy, Kid, switch to infrared. See if you're being tracked," Kaldur said over the com-link. "Avra, do you see anyone coming?"

"I can see the shadows of a group far down that way," I said, pointing out and squinting. "They're getting closer, but I can't see how many."

"I see them. It's a squad of armed bozos, four o" Kid said.

"Two squads," Superboy said. "But they'll meet each other before they find us."

The pop of gunfire cut through the quiet, I jumped in surprise.

"No super hearing required now," Kid Flash said.

"Swing wide, steer clear," Kaldur ordered.

"Yeah, as soon as I find Rob," Kid said.

"Wait!" I hissed, but it was too late; Wally had already run off. "He's just in the trees..."

A few seconds later we heard Wally's yelling over the comm, and something along the lines of "So much for stealthy." Superboy was the first to run after him, Megan and I shortly behind him.

The first thing Superboy did was run and tackle the biggest guy he saw, somehow ending up on the ground with the baddie in a tree. Kid Flash was running around dodging bullets, and Megan was somewhere. I hid behind a tree and threw a few nervous blobs at the ones in range, but I don't think it much of anything. That's when Robin dropped from the trees, immediately taking the three closest people.

"What is wrong with you guys?! Remember covert? Why didn't you follow my lead, vanish into the jungle?"

"That's what you were doing? Way to fill us in, we're not mind readers you know!" Kid shouted, knocking someone back. "Er, I'm not, anyway."

"You told me I could only read the bad guy's minds," Megan said, landing behind him. I came out from behind my tree just as an angry red man ran out towards us.

Without thinking I shot a steady blast at him, and he was knocked back to where Kaldur had appeared. Kaldur grabbed the man and did something to make him scream, dropped him, and smashed what he was holding.

Kaldur's aura was speckled with muddy yellow, he was tired and stressed; probably about our jumping into a fire fight. He didn't say anything though, just started tying all of the goons to trees.

"I recognize those uniforms," Robin said, after making sure that all of the men were securely tied to trees. "They belong to the Cult of the Kobra."

"I am certain Batman would have mentioned it if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca's venom operation," Kaldur said, arms crossed.

"Agreed. And since there's clearly no love lost between the cultists and those goons, I'm betting Kobra came in and tossed them out. That's why normal supply lines have been cut off."

"We get it, Kobra wanted super cultists, mystery solved. Radio Bats, and we'll be home in time for-"

"These cultists aren't _on _venom, Kobra's hoarding the stuff!" Robin said. "We don't leave. Not until I know why."

"Until _you _know why?" Wally said, daggers in his tone of voice. Both his and Robin's aura were growing steadily redder, muddier. They were angry.

"This team needs a leader!"

"And it's you?! Dude, you're a thirteen year-old kid, who ducked out on us without a word!" Robin laughed quietly,

"And you're a mature 15? You blew our over first chance you got!"

I walked away, siting down in front of a tree. It was tiring, being out here. Walking through the woods is easy, sure, but the guns and the in-team arguments were making me want to kick something. Or take a nap. Either would be good right then.

Superboy and Megan were flirting or something, because Megan _once again _became pinker, and Superboy's aura lightened just slightly.

The goons were whispering to each other. I couldn't make out any words, but I heard the low voice of the big one that Superboy had first knocked into. His aura was deep red, almost like Batman's, but slightly... Orange? It was a very odd color; more powerful, more ambitious.

The auras of the men around him were all dim in comparison, they were just multicolored goons, with a distinct lack of anything noteworthy. As far as I could tell, they were just normal people with guns.

The red man started laughing, his aura turning browner.

"Such clever niños, but you only know half the story. Let me show you the rest. Get you into my factory via my secret entrance." The others approached him, Megan kneeling in front of him. Both of their foreheads glowed blue, but very quickly the man's whole body turned black.

"There _is_ a secret entrance, but he's also hiding something." The blue intensified.

"Ah ah ahh, chica," the man said. "Bane is not that easy."

"Ugh," Megan scoffed. The blue dissipated. "He's mentally reciting fútbol scores, en Español. This might take a while."

"It's not complicated," Bane said. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

.:)$(:.

"You know he doesn't mean well, right?" The team was walking a ways behind Bane, me next to Kaldur and the rest in an erratic clump. Kaldur nodded.

"I know. What did you see?"

"Like Meg- _Miss Martian_ said, he's hiding something. All I know for sure is that he's ambitious, and that when he was talking to us earlier his aura was greedy, and generally not one to be trusted." Kaldur nodded again.

"I will keep this in mind, thank you."

Bane stopped almost immediately after I said this, and gestured in front of him. Robin and Kid Flash went foreword and looked down, Aqualad standing directly behind them. They were all mumbling about product and buyers, and who had the idea first. I wanted to get closer, but Aqualad grabbed my elbow; I flinched and shook free of his grip, and he held up his hands.

"My apologies, but there is a cliff." I nodded, hugging myself and trying to tune out the bickering idiots in front of me.

From what I could see over their heads, there were little pinpricks of color moving around erratically. I stared at them while Robin and Kid Flash did their thing, and was only drawn out of my daze by a loud grunt and crash behind us.

"Answers are this way," Bane said, pointing in the new tunnel. He walked ahead, and when he was far enough away Kid Flash whispered, "So, now El Luchador is our leader!" Robin hit him and kept walking.

.:)$(:.

They ran off. Again.

Robin disappeared as soon as we got out of the tunnel; I couldn't find him this time, there was too much factory stuff blocking the way. Naturally, Kid Flash decided that the best course of action was to run after and attempt to beat the Boy Wonder in getting the information.

Bane made some snippy comment about our chain of command, and nobody really disagreed with him.

The remaining team members were hiding behind crates and staring at the shipping trucks, while I stood a bit further away and watched for stray guards. The others were talking about the buy, something about old product versus new product? I wasn't really paying any attention, I probably should have been though.  
"Helicopter's coming," Superboy whispered. A partial plan was hatched almost immediately.

Bane directed us to the nearest catwalk, while Megan- Miss Martian, _whatever_ I was supposed to call her in the field- went into camouflage mode and hid outside, waiting for the helicopter to land. I crouched next to Aqualad and Superboy, trying to hold on to the rails of the catwalk and not think about falling.

The light around Aqualad's head became a darker blue; Miss Martian must have been talking to him.

"Sportsmaster," he hissed. "He is the buyer? Aqualad to Red Tornado, do you read?" He pressed his finger to his ear, but only grunted in frustration. "Can't reach the League, Robin, or Kid. Comm's jammed; we need a plan, now." Did that mean that Danielle couldn't hear us? My stomach dropped at the thought.

"I have a suggestion," Bane said, aura flashing an angry red before he jumped off the catwalk and attacked two stray men beneath us.

"What is he-"

"Incoming!" I shoved Aqualad out of the way just before the amalgam of bright colors crashed through the window and destroyed where we'd just been standing. Of _course_ it had to destroy the catwalk, sending us all tumbling to the ground. Aqualad kept me from breaking anything, but that didn't help the terror of falling several stories with no training whatsoever. _'It was just supposed to be a simple recon mission, why did it have to end up being ALL OF THIS SHIT!'_

The humongous _thing_ that had sent us flying was standing up, and it let out a huge, angry roar before barreling towards us on the command of some royal purple Brit behind it. Superboy met it halfway, giving me enough time to dash for cover behind another metal something. I threw blasts of dark blue and yellow and red, mostly at the minions but sometimes at the big thing. Whatever it was, I couldn't get a good read off of it. It's aura was swirling with different colors, mostly dark and muddy shades of things, but it wasn't a smooth mixture, it was almost like its own aura was bring forced on it. The only prominent thing was the angry red that surfaced whenever it was hit by something.

Amidst the chaos I saw Megan's blackish-pinkish camouflage, and the blue as she used her powers to throw people out of the way. Somehow she was knocked out of the air, the black disappearing as she crashed. Almost immediately Kid Flash ran up and knocked out some minions, just in time for three more to show up and start firing at us. I took a deep breath, calming my blue and yellow fear and focusing on the black, complete and utter control, willing it to gather at my fingertips. I clasped my hands together with my index fingers pointing up and ducked around the metal something, firing three short beams at the minions. The black rippled over them, and they fell backwards immediately.

There was a ringing in my ears, and the black in my hands tried to fight it; I dismissed the feeling and Megan's voice rang in my head,

_"Everybody online?"_

_"Yeah..." _Superboy groaned.

_"You know it, beautiful."_

_"Kid, this is literally _the last_ place you should be flirting-"_ I hissed, before Aqualad cut me off.

_"Not now. We need to regroup."_

_"Busy now!" _Robin chimed.

"_Robin, now!" _He didn't say anything in return, but appeared a moment later, just in time for Aqualad went to order Kid to clear a path for our retreat.

Kid ran through a crowd of shooters, knocking them all out of the way so we could run by. We all did a mad dash for the exit, but just as the rest of them were disappearing behind a corner, Superboy and I were stopped by the amalgam.

It locked hands with Superboy and tried to push him back; I shot several black beams in frustration, and Superboy threw it into a bunch of incoming goons before grabbing my wrist and dragging me to where the rest of the team was waiting.

A door locked behind us, but almost as soon as we started running, the amalgam knocked it down and charged, a team of shooters behind him.

"Superboy, the support beams!" Aqualad shouted. Superboy shoved me foreword before punching the walls, causing the whole tunnel to start collapsing. Megan grabbed both of us, flying us ahead to the rest of the team just as the rest of the path was blocked off by falling debris.

We stopped running, and there was a loud cracking noise; everyone seemed to relax a little, but Robin's aura had become duller, burned out.

"How could my first mission as leader go so wrong?" he said, turning away from the rest of us.

"You do have the most experience," Aqualad said. "Perhaps that is exactly what has left you unprepared. Fighting alongside Batman, your rolls are defined. You two do not need to talk; but this team is new, and a leader must be clear, explicit. He cannot vanish and expect others to play parts in an unknown plan."

"Oh, so I'm supposed to hold everyone's hands?!" Robin shouted, turning around and throwing his arms in the air. He stopped, groaned, and his aura brightened back to its normal hue. "Who am I kidding? You should lead us, Kaldur. You're the only one who can."

"Please, I can run circles around-"

"Shut up Wally," I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"You all know he's the one," Robin continued. "We all do." There was a chorus of approval before Kaldur finally agreed.

"Okay. Then I accept the burden until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders." He moved to stand in front of Robin, both of them glowing just a little bit brighter. "You were born to lead this team. Maybe not yet, but soon." Robin nodded, and Kaldur turned to the rest of us. "Alright. Out first priority is preventing that shipment from leaving this island."

"Funny, I had the same thought."

.:)$(:.

'_God dammit I do not have any patience for this._'

Bane was going to blow us up, simple as that. I was ready to strangle someone. Simple as that.

And Kaldur was honestly surprised that he betrayed us? Really, they're all too trusting.

Or, maybe not? Kaldur gave the telepathic order for Kid to get a running start.

And Bane was ranting.

"_Can I shoot him? Please?_" I thought, only partially aware that the rest of them could hear me. Kid _finally_ took action, stealing something from the brute that certainly enraged him. Before Bane could strike back, he was enveloped in a blue, and he started to float above us.

"Finally," Superboy said, walking underneath him and readying himself. "Drop him."

Forget strangling him, just watching this would make my day."

.:)$(:.

"Thanks for the workout, but I gotta fly," he said.

We'd completely wrecked his buy; Aqualad managed to take out the amalgam- now dubbed Mammoth- via large streams of water and electricity, Superboy, Kid Flash and I had taken out almost all of the stray cultists, and Robin was going head to head with the royal purple "exalted one" of Kobra, and his person, this rich green Sportsmaster thought he could leave- hold Miss Martian as a_ hostage_ and _run away!- _and leave the battle unscathed?

Pity we blew up his helicopter. I'm sure the explosion would have been glorious had I been able to see it.

It was also a pity that Kaldur had to explain the whole mess, blown up factory and all, to Batman.

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice  
August 4, 01:06 EDT

Batman was and always would be the most terrifying person I had ever encountered.

"A simple recon mission, observe and report," he hissed, leaning right in Aqualad's face. "You'll each receive a written evaluation detaining your _many_ mistakes."

Anybody else see the problem with that?

"Until then, good job." I tried very very hard not to fall over in surprise, and everyone flashed white, turning to look at the intimidating ball of red. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen, and how you choose who leads, determines character."

We were dismissed shortly after, and I practically ran to my room. Danielle cut me off before I could hide.

"Do you have ANY IDEA how WORRIED I was about you?!" she shouted, and I shrunk back. "I couldn't hear you, I couldn't see you, and then there was an EXPLOSION?!"

"It's not like I could control any of that, blame Kobra!" I replied, my voice about an octave higher than it usually was.

"Oh, I DO! When I get my hands on those shitty meatballs I'm gonna WRING THEIR NECKS! But until then I only have you so GUESS WHO'S GETTING SHOUTED AT!"

"I ALREADY HAD TO FACE BATMAN DON'T YOU DO THIS TO ME TOO!"

It was a long, long day after that...


	10. Chapter 8: Schooled

_'Thoughts'  
_"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Beam"  
**

_It was a long, long day after that...  
_

Mount Justice  
August 3, 13:01 EDT

Why did all of the games in the cave have to be virtual? Yeah, I guess it saved space, but I could have had a _bit_ of a chance if the air hockey wasn't a hologram. Instead I had to watch people leaning and swiping over empty space while stupid sound effects went off at random.

After defeating Wally for the fifth time, Robin switched out with Kaldur so that Yellow might have a chance to regain a fraction of his dignity. While everyone else was standing around the table watching the excitement, I was sitting against the wall next to the zeta tube and listening to an audio book. Danielle had pulled some strings with Batman and gotten me an old iPod, one with the circular button pads instead of a touchscreen; he must have really liked her or something, 'cause she was getting entirely too much new stuff.

While I was grateful for the new source of entertainment, it was kind of obvious that Danielle had picked out the books... The first thing she'd put on it was the Percy Jackson series, followed by _The Lost Hero_, _The Red Pyramid_, and pretty much every other Riordan book in existence. After listening to everything on it I'd managed to get Megan to find some stuff not written by Riordan; I was very much satisfied by the Theodosia book series, and some other random things like _Howl's Moving Castle_.

**"Recognized; Superboy, B04." **Just as Sophie had righted the scarecrow, somebody won another game and Superboy walked through the table.

"Hi Superboy! How was Metropolis?" If he was going to answer, it was interrupted by a request for attention by Black Canary.

"Ready for training, everyone?" she asked, approaching the group with Martian Manhunter beside her. They both seemed beat up, grey patches spattered all across their normally bright auras. Megan called out their names in surprise- she called Manhunter something, Shaun? Jean?- before running up and hugging her uncle.

"M'gann, I was... in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd see how you were adjusting." It... wasn't exactly a lie? But he wasn't telling the whole truth.

"A few bumps, but I'm learning."

"That's all I can ask."

"Stick around," Black Canary called out, interrupting the heartwarming family time. I looked over my shoulder, apparently Superboy had tried to ditch us. "Class is in session." Superboy stopped walking, and Canary moved toward the center of the room. As she walked, a low buzz came from the floor; whatever the noise was, it was putting me on edge. "I consider it an honor to be your teacher," Canary started. "I'll throw a lot at you, everything I've learned from my own mentors-" she grunted, and flinched. What was she doing with her arms? I guessed she was taking off a coat or something. "And, my own bruises."

"What happened?" Megan asked, aura tinged with a worried blue. It was only the. That I saw the tinged grey patches of Canary's aura; she did a good job of hiding her pain.

"The job." The answer was simple enough, but it still left everyone with questions; it didn't help make me feel any less on edge. "Now, combat is about controlling the situation, putting the battle on your terms. you should always be acting, never reacting. I'll need a sparring partner."

_'Oh hell no, don't look at me, I'd rather save my ass from getting kicked for as long as possib—'_

"Right here! Yeah!" Wally called out. He walked to her, making some comment about showing off his moves before throwing something in the general direction of the trash and getting thoroughly pummeled by the older woman.

"Wait, how old is Canary?" I whispered to Danielle. Judging by her voice I would have guessed mid twenties, still way too old for Wally to be saying anything.

"Uhh, mid twenties I think?"

'_Great. Wally, you're disgusting.'_

There was a faint beeping noise coming from where Wally was lying on the ground, groaning about how it "hurts so good..." With every new sound the arena provided, I became less and less focused on the lesson.

"Good block," Canary said smugly, helping him up. She seemed very proud of herself. "But did anyone see what he did wrong?"

"Ohh, ohh! He hit on teacher and got served?" Robin laughed.

"Dude!" Wally whined.  
"He allowed me to dictate the terms of-"

"Oh please," Superboy cut her off. "With my powers, the battle's always on my terms. I'm a living weapon, and this is a waste of my time." Canary wasn't even slightly deterred.

"Prove it."

Superboy threw one punch, and he was immediately thrown across the room and flipped on his back. Danielle and Robin were both holding in their laughter, and I was in awe. Canary was, admittedly, much cooler than I'd originally believed. Superboy stood up, giving out a low growl.

"You're angry, good, but don't react. Channel that anger int-" she was cut off by Supey's war cry. In two seconds she'd managed to somersault over his shoulders and knock his feet out from under him, making the little beep noise ring out a third time.

"That's it! I'm done," he growled, jumping up and walking away from the crowd. The noises ceased, and I relaxed.

"Training is mandatory."

_Boop! Boop!_

_'God dammit...' _

"Batman to the cave." The bat's voice echoed across the room, and everyone headed to what was apparently the source. What was it with these people and holograms? "Five hours ago, a new menace attacked Green Arrow and Black Canary. The attacker was capable of studying, then duplicating the powers and abilities of its opponents. Arrow called in reinforcements, which nearly proved disastrous, as our foe gained more and more power with each new combatant." My mouth was hanging open; I quickly closed it and tried to compose myself. Everyone had some combination of white and fearful yellow overlaying their normal colors.

"Woah... One guy with the powers of the entire League?"

"In the end, it took eight Leaguers nearly four hours to defeat and dismantle the android," Batman said.

"A-an android? Who made it, T. O. Morrow?" Robin asked, stepping forward.

"Good guess, Robin, but Red Tornado doesn't think so."

"The technology bears the signature of Professor Ivo," Manhunter said, and the three Primary boys all turned a bit more yellow.

"Ivo? But, Ivo's dead..." At Kaldur's words, Danielle went to tapping on her phone, probably digging up as much info on these people as she could.

"So we all thought... or hoped." Canary's tone was grim. I was getting worried.

"To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized, we're sending two trucks carrying the android's parts to two separate S.T.A.R. Labs facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation. Every precaution is being taken; we'll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion, in case Ivo- or anyone- tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks."

"Yes! Road trip!"

_'Shut up Wally.'_

"So now we take out your trash?" Superboy said, ice in his voice.

"You had something better to do?" There was a beeping noise from somewhere in the crowd, and everyone turned to Kaldur.

"Coordinates received. On our way."

.:)$(:.

As both a blind girl and a person with zero experience operating a motor vehicle, it was decided that I would ride in the back of the truck going to Boston. The others were all riding motorcycles and were split into groups of three to follow the trucks; Danielle, Superboy, and Robin we're going to New York, and Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Kid Flash were going to Boston with me.

It was uncomfortable. While I was glad that I wasn't going to have to brave riding a motorcycle, I was in a confined space with probably a dozen soldiers, and there was barely any breathing room between us. I suppose they were briefed about me or something, because I was allowed to sit in the back corner and the person next to me gave me several inches of space.

It was a pretty dull ride, to be honest. Aside from trying to guess what kind of people I was sitting with and fiddling with my gloves, I had nothing to occupy me. Batman made me leave my iPod back at the cave so that I "won't be distracted," but what was there to be distracted by? It was just me, eleven assorted soldiers, and a pile of robot parts. At least I had the comm's to listen to.  
"Do you think Superboy's okay?" Megan asked. It was the first conversation since the trip had begun. "I-I wasn't reading his mind, I swear, but anger flowed off him in waves."

"That's how it usually looks," I cut in offhandedly. There was a shift among the people in the truck, and I pointed to my ear. Hopefully that got the message across. Wally laughed from outside, bouncing right over my comment.

"Heh, surf that wave. Just give him space!" Reasonable advice, coming from Wally. "Me? Stick as close as you want." There was a time and a place for everything, and that went for both Wally's flirting and the insult I so desperately wanted to shout at him. There was no way for me to do so without the soldiers getting concerned, and I found that quite problematic.

"Superboy just needs time to cool off," Kaldur reassured. "A quiet mission will clear his head."

Ten seconds.

It wasn't even ten seconds before a round of high pitched laughter and metallic clangs rang through the truck, prompting the soldiers to stand and prime their weapons. I followed their lead, summoning white light in my hands. "Robin, Superboy! Our truck is under attack!" Kaldur shouted.

"Kind of figured," Robin countered.

"What are we dealing with?" I demanded, sick of the anticipation.

I was prepared to deal with a lot of things, but I definitely wasn't expecting Superboy to growl, "I hate monkeys."

Most of what happened after that was just me listening. I listened to the chattering on the back of the truck get farther away, I listened to the driver screaming in a panic. I listened to the hum of the monkeys cutting in above us, and then listened as the ceiling above me was ripped open. Gunshots went off around me and I vaguely recalled myself firing up at the opening, unsure if I was actually hitting anything.

The robotic giggling was deafening, all around my as metal paws pulled at my hands and my hair, knocking me around the truck and throwing me to the ground, on top of the pile of fallen soldiers. I squinted, listening to the giggling and watching the auras of the soldiers reflect off the walls, trying to focus in on...

There.

Faster than I'd ever managed before, I focused in on the hazy outlines and pointed, shooting off a steady beam of white light. For a moment the robots were clearly illuminated, easy targets. But only for a moment.

One of the chittering demons struck me, a blazing heat searing into my eyeballs, and everything flashed white. I staggered, falling onto my hands and knees, trying to see the floor in front of me, trying not to scream from the pain. When I pulled my hands away I could feel blood on by bare fingertips.

The truck slowed and came to a stop, allowing myself and the wounded soldiers to evacuate. In the time between the attack and the truck stopping, the effects of the blast had been significantly reduced... Instead of a blinding white, I could see vague, blurry impressions of the auras. Walls and floors were still a problem, but not one I would have to deal with seeing as how we were in the middle of nowhere. The attack also left me with a persistent headache, throbbing dully behind my eyes. I may still have been bleeding, but I wasn't sure.

Kaldur was in the middle of the road while Megan and Wally were off somewhere in front of the truck.

"Aqualad to Robin, we've lost our cargo, did you-" Robin interrupted him with a sigh.

"It's gone. And so is Superboy!" There was a pause.

"Aqualad to Superboy, radio your position we can help you."

"I don't need help," Superboy shouted, his words garbled. "Don't want any!"

"Superboy?" I slowly made my way over to Kaldur, rubbing my temple and trying to shield my eyes from his glow.

"He ditched his comm, it stopped moving on the GPS a bit north of here," Danielle noted, as if tracking all of our comm links was a perfectly normal thing to do.

"Super!" Wally drawled, coming up behind Kaldur. "Now we can't even track him!" Megan, now in front of me, held her hands to the sides of her head. I watched the aura around her mind turn dark blue, seeming to reach out around her before settling back into her usual pink.

"He's out of my telepathic range," she explained, lowering her hands. "This Professor Ivo, if he is alive, seems to be two steps ahead of us. M-maybe w-we should contact Red Tornado?" Kaldur shook his head.

"Tornado always tells us to handle things ourselves. And the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they're reassembled."

"Well that's a great plan, except for us not knowing WHERE TO LOOK!" Wally shouted, throwing his hands up.

"Calm the fuck down," I whispered, wincing.

"Maybe we do..." Robin continued. There was a shuffling sound and then a very faint beeping before he spoke again. "We'd have heard by now if the decoy trucks had been attacked, so how did these monkeys know exactly which trucks to target? Hold this Danielle..." Another pause. "HA! The parts have GPS! The monkeys can track the signal, which means I can track them with the one I captured. Looks like both sets of parts are converging on... Gotham City."

"That far south?" Kaldur shouted. "We won't be able to make it there any time soon. I'm sending Kid on ahead to meet you. Aqualad out." Wally immediately grew brighter, adjusting something on his face and the disappearing down the road in a blur.

.:)$(:.

There was a complication.

Reacquiring the motorcycles was no problem at all for the nonhuman duo, of course. We could have been up and on our way to Gotham in no time if it weren't for the simple fact that my escort vehicle had been rendered useless. For all I cared they could have left me me in the middle of the road, because there was no way I was going to sit flush up against one of them with no guarantee of their safety.

It would all be fine if we hadn't ridden on those godforsaken motorcycles.

My rather loud interjections about death and safety and such had of course been overruled, and I was made to share a bike with Kaldur. This led to what had to be the quietest, deadliest, and not to mention the most nerve-wracking motorcycle ride in history.

I struggled to keep my uncovered face at a safe distance from Kaldur without falling off of the demonic speed machine, my jaw tense and my fists clenched in a questionably secure position around his torso. My stomach dropped at every turn in the road and my eyes, bleeding once again, were so abused by the wind that I might as well have been washing them with acid.

It was overall a miserable experience. The only thing keeping my anger manageable was the hope that my eyes would heal soon, and the underlying fear that came with knowing that Danielle was probably walking into danger.

I tried to take in my very limited surroundings in order to take my mind off of things. This only brought me back to cursing at my eyes, as my head was throbbing to the point where I could barely even see Megan, who was directly to my left.

Needless to say, I was extremely stressed out.

.:)$(:.

Danielle couldn't help but feel useless. There they were in the gym of some high school, everyone except for herself going toe to toe with the super powerful killer robot. She was more than a bit annoyed, but also more than a bit afraid, as the three boys who tended to know what they were doing were getting absolutely destroyed.

Well, there was one benefit that came with hiding; if she'd been in the fray she wouldn't have noticed the old man and his monkeys drop in to watch.

.:)$(:.

_'Oh, sweet relief!'_ The feeling, like laying down under a gentle stream of water, came with a flood of rainbow lights overtaking my vision. I took this as an opportunity to relax for a moment, my eyes half-lidded and my posture less stiff. Kaldur noticed this and went white.

"Are you alright?" he asked, shouting over the wind. I nodded, and then realized that he probably couldn't see.

"Yeah!"

"Is the injury severe?"

"I don't think so? It should be fine any minute now!" He made a noise of acknowledgement and went silent again.

My vision was ultra-clear after the light faded, the outlines of the road sharper than I had ever remembered, and the auras around me- Kaldur's, Megan's, even my own- were... more confined?

Before, the edges had been blurred, almost smeared across the background, pulsating and indefinite. Now everything was more solid. I later described this feeling to Danielle, and she told me that it closely mirrored how she felt when she put on her glasses for the first time.

.:)$(:.

Where had the arrow come from?

Danielle whipped around from where she had been watching Ivo to face the window it had flown out of, but saw nothing there. In this moment of distraction, she hadn't noticed the pair of robotic monkeys approaching until they were chittering right behind her and grabbing whatever they could. One of them ended with a fistful of hair and shirt while the other grabbed her ankles and flew her, kicking and screaming, several yards away from their master.

Ivo shot her a disinterested look before turning back to his show and yawning loudly.

"Oh, yawn. Normally Amazo would study and mimic your abilities during battle, but what's the point? You're all such poor copies of the originals." He started to pick at his fingernails, blissfully unaware of the angry Kryptonian that had just launched straight at him.

The man's mad scramble to avoid being crushed gave Danielle quite the opportunity; she gleefully kicked the man in the back as he passed, swelling with pride when he let out a wheezing cry of distress. She then struggled as if there was no tomorrow, somehow managing to release her legs from the robot's grip.

She sat up as quickly as she could and tore the monkey from her shoulders, almost screaming when she felt a chunk of her hair go with it. Throwing it as far away as she could- admittedly, not that far- she kicked out at its partner and heard a satisfying crunch.

"Amazo, protect your master, priority alpha!" All eyes were on Ivo.

Amazo was caught by his programming, unable to move more than a few steps while his master was passed around the gym. Danielle was happy to say that she managed to badly disfigure one of the monkey's arms before it flew off toward the red headed old coot, and the adrenaline rushing through her made everything afterwards seem a bit surreal.

"Captain Atom." A blast fired at Superboy. Robin knocked Ivo across the gym floor.

"Access Superman." Something like an earthquake coursed through the room and Danielle was knocked off of her feet, tumbling down the bleachers.

"Martian Manhunter." Ivo was escaping, but she was the only one who noticed and she had no air to shout with.

"Superman." Superboy went to punch the android, managing to catch the it in its transition. Sparks flew but Superboy remained steady, only moving when he was forced back by Amazo's head blowing up in his face.

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice  
August 4, 01:06 EDT

Everyone was battered. They were spotty with grey patches and weighed down by a dull, tired feeling. We wanted to go home. We wanted to rest.

Couldn't the mission debriefing have waited until morning?

The three of us that had been on our way to Boston had arrived just after what we were told was a spectacular explosion. Danielle and Robin were kneeling shakily and fiddling with what I could only assume was the robot. One radio later and we were on our way back to the cave, the parts having been safely disposed of by the League.

"The Amazo android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at the two separate S.T.A.R. Labs," Kaldur said, surrounded by his peers and gesturing to some hologram. "Ivo escaped, and since he originated the tech he is arguably more dangerous than the android."

_'Do all of us really need to be here?' _

"Capturing the professor will be a League priority."

_'Surely this can have wait until morning.'_

"But we understand your mission encountered... other complications."

_'That's it, I'm done.' _

Danielle was rocking on her feet, her aura more grey than orange. But there was something else, a muddy gold that spanned from her shoulders up, and with an odd spot on her foot. She was desperately attempting to absorb the information, desperately trying not to give in to fatigue.

I lightly touched the back of my hand to her forearm; she got the message and started to walk with me.

Something had happened with the adults. I chanced a look over my shoulder and was somewhat surprised to see Robin flaring a bright, lemony yellow. He was shouting at his senior, who had been congratulating us not a moment before. Robin was offended, he was struggling to maintain some semblance of control. Batman was just surprised.

"We didn't follow you," he growled. Danielle started to shuffle, obviously wanting to hear the rest of the conversation.

"And that's not your arrow. But that means-"

"Speedy!" Wally shouted.

"He has our backs."

"What the hell does Speedy have to do with anything?" I whispered. Danielle shrugged. The rest of the trip back to our rooms was silent.

.:)$(:.

**I don't really have any excuse for why this is so late. I would look at what I had every month or so, write a paragraph, and then put it down again, and that was unacceptable. I apologize, and thank those of you that are still reading this. Updates will still be slow, but I will make sure that they are never again as slow as this one was. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you have a lovely day!**


	11. Chapter 9: Intermission

_'Thoughts'  
_"Speech"  
_"Telepathy"_  
**"Zeta-Beam"**

_The trip back to our rooms was silent._

Mount Justice

August 4, 13:48 EDT

[Day 1]

"Why didn't you tell me you broke your fucking toe?!" I shouted. I was holding Danielle's disgusting murky grey foot, making sure to grab her by the pant leg. Danielle had gone white, probably just as shocked as I was.

I had been sitting in the floor of my room, propped up against the back of he bed when she had come in, limping and swearing about her foot and sounding like she was about to cry.

"I don't know! I guess I just didn't realize it?" she yelled back, wrenching her foot from my grasp. She winced immediately afterwards, clearly in extreme pain. "Probably adrenaline or some shit, I didn't even feel it. Imagine my surprise when I woke up and it was all purple and swollen!"

I ran my hands through my hair, tugging sharply at it in frustration. Was there no downtime? No reprieve? In less than twenty four hours I had suffered through _two_ nerve wracking trips across the state and an attack by a killer robot; I just wanted a break! Maybe listen to some music, or sit on the beach and stare off into the eternal abyss, away from all of the ass-fuckery that made up the cave...

I'd already wasted more than half of the day sleeping, and Danielle's broken toe was guaranteed to knock me out for at least two more hours...

I removed my hands from my hair, cracking my knuckles nervously.

"_Fuck_ you, man. I'm gonna be super fucking cranky when I wake up and you'd be ready to fucking deal with it," I said, taking off my gloves and putting them on the floor beside me.

"You're already cranky," Danielle grumbled, propping her foot up on my knee.

I huffed, because she was obviously right. Holding one of my hands above her toes, staring at them while I put the back of my other hand up against my mouth and started sucking on the skin. I looked at it every few seconds, stopping when a light grey overlay had appeared on the normally bright white.

The "injury" was light enough that the healing process began almost immediately, and as soon as it did I grabbed the grey patch on Danielle's toes, squeezing a little harder than necessary out of spite. Rainbows appeared not only on the back of my one hand but on the fingers of the other, spreading down around Danielle's foot and then farther down her leg and around to various other places on her body. Despite her healthy glow, she was apparently a lot more banged up than she was letting on.

With every second that the process went on I felt more and more of my energy leave me. I was a good seven minutes before the last rainbow faded and I released Danielle's foot, slumping over.

Wordlessly, I pointed to where the door may have been and waited for Danielle to see herself out. As soon as her newly brightened orange had disappeared, I let myself fall forward and I landed on my pillow, falling asleep.

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice

August 5, 07:14 EDT

[Day 2]

I was awake early for once in my life. Everything was quiet, the residents of the Cave all doing general passive things. I was standings in the kitchen, staring up into the cabinets and spacing out.

There were no less than four boxes in the cabinet that could have been cereal when the day before there had only been one box– the actual cereal. It was slightly frustrating, but I was mostly too tired to give a shit. I pulled a box down from the high shelf and picked at the lip of the cardboard, finding it to be open; I sniffed the contents and it seemed safe enough? What the hell. If it was in the cabinet then it probably wasn't rat poison or something.

"'Scuse me." I jumped at the sound of Superboy's voice, almost spilling the hypothetical cereal all over the kitchen. Quickly trying to compose myself, I held the box up over my head where he could probably see it.

"Is this cereal?" There was a pause.

"Yeah."

"Cool." I shifted out of his way, opening another cabinet nearby and pulling out a bowl. I held it up. "Is this clean?"

"Yeah." The response was faster that time. I put the bowl on the counter and stuck my finger on the lip, and then poured out the cereal until it was touching my finger. I put the box back on the counter.

"Could you grab the milk?" I heard the fridge open, the sound of some rummaging and the scrape of plastic, and the carton was placed on the counter next to me. "Thanks," I said lightly. He grunted.

After the milk was poured, I replaced the cap and moved the carton away from me, fully intending on putting it back when I was done eating. I turned towards the door and was about to go sit on the couch when I noticed Superboy still standing in the corner. I paused. "Want some?"

We ended up sitting on the couch together, silent except for the static on the television and the crunching of our sugary carbohydrates. I wasn't really sure what to make of it, honestly... Was this a normal thing that normal people did? Eat breakfast together and "watch" TV? It sounded normal. We just put our own twist on it.

It was chill. Superboy, he was chill.

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice,

August 6, 15:17 EDT

[Day 3]

"So the shampoo is on the left and the conditioner is on the right, and there's a bar of soap up on this shelf here for some reason, I don't even know– oh yeah! The shampoo, it's really, REALLY bubbly so you don't have to later for very long, and when it's ready to wash off you'll _know_. And the conditioner is actually really good quality, better than hotel stuff anyway, and remember that you don't need to use more than the size of a qua_–_" I held up my hand to cut Danielle off.

"I think I've got it," I said, staring into the shower stall. "I just need to turn the knob to the left, right?"

"Yep!"

"Okay." There was an uncomfortably long pause. "You can get out now?"

"OH SHIT! Sorry!" She was gone faster than I could blink, and I laughed quietly.

I showered for over half an hour. It was wonderfully, incredibly relaxing, and I was star struck by the concept that I could have access to such an experience basically whenever I wanted.

I couldn't stop running my fingers through my hair, which had dried after several hours of goofing off. It was just so soft? It hadn't been that soft before, not that I could remember. It was also much less prone to staying in one place, my once-uniform bangs sticking out in every direction. I pulled them taut against my face; they had grown down almost past my nose, which was fairly normal for me. On a normal day they completely covered my eyes– fine by me, because for some reason I could never see them.

A sudden rapping from the door interrupted my musings, and I let my hair fall back into place.

"Come in!" I called. I heard the metallic _swoosh_ of the door opening, and my peripheral vision was tinted pink.

"Hey, Avra!" Megan cooed, her overly bubbly self being as overly bubbly as ever. "The rest of the team and I, well, we were wondering if you wanted to join us for a movie? Wally only has a few days until school starts for him, and he wants to have some fun before he goes back to suffering. Or at least that's how he put it, anyways, isn't he silly!" She said all of this very quickly, and I barely registered it.

"Um, a movie?" I asked quietly. Someone had made a mistake.

They were trying to include me, and I really appreciated the attempt, but listening along as the others watched some great gift to visual arts was a tad awkward. For some reason I agreed anyway.

I was sitting on the floor beside the sofa, while the rest of the team actually sat on the couch. The movie had good music, at least, and dialogue that I could mostly keep track of without needing to _see_ it. There were some quiet moments, though, no dialogue and no sound cues for me to follow, and during those moments Danielle would lean down and whisper what all was going on.

It wasn't the best experience, but it wasn't the worst, I guess.

The movie must have ended when I wasn't paying attention, because everyone began to get up and wander. I followed their lead and made my way back to my room; at least I was in private before I completely humiliated myself.

I was going past the bed and to my little nest when I tripped over my own feet and fell face first with a shriek and a loud THUNK! If Kaldur hadn't just passed my room no one would have noticed. But unfortunately he had, and he did, and he rushed in to find me laying with my limbs sprawled out, and giving a low and continuous groan of defeat.

"This is fine. This is normal," I said, holding my hand up. "No need to make anything of the clumsy blind girl, move along." He chuckled.

"Are you sure you aren't in need of assistance?"

"Nope. All good here. Just fine and dandy." I sat myself up and turned to look at him, shooting him a pained smile and a thumbs up. I wasn't going to tell him, of course, but I though I might have broken my wrist. It'd be fine by morning, anyway. I ran my fingers through my hair with my good hand, laughing crudely.

What a productive day!

Kaldur went slightly silver, struck by curiosity.

"What," I said, standing myself up. Kaldur shifted sheepishly.

"Oh? Nothing. I apologize for being rude, I simply noticed something that I hadn't seen before." I quirked one of my eyebrows.

"Hm? Do tell."

"I don't believe I've seen your eyes before. Your hair has always covered them, up until now." I hummed.

"Really? Neat." I left it at that and leapt up onto my bed, hoping that it would be an adequate cue for Kaldur to exit. It was, and the Atlantean left with a quiet farewell.

My eyes were unusual. According to everyone who had seen them, they were very murky white. I hadn't asked for any in depth description, but I knew that whatever they looked like they weren't the norm. Normally people couldn't see them, which was fine. Everything was fine.

.:)K(:.

Infinity Island

August 7, 23:49 ECT

[Day 4]

Keres was about to kill this fucking scientist woman, she was just so tired of the COMPLAINING. Yes, she knew that if the woman was killed before the job was done that Keres would be killed herself, but in her opinion it was worth it. She had become invisible hours before then, just to keep the woman– Roquette?– from complaining at her.

Someone knocked on the door. What the hell?! That _wasn't_ supposed to happen, _ever_. Keres immediately positioned herself around the good doctor, making sure that if anyone tried to rescue her that they'd have to go through _her. _

The two door guards had a similar idea, getting ready to shoot as soon as the door was open; the sorry excuses for Shadows were knocked over in an instant as the door was kicked open by some guy with a bow. He made quick work of the guards, but Keres got the upper hand when she appeared out of thin air and kicked him in the back of the head.

He went down like a rock, and Keres kicked him in the gut several times, working to get the knives out of her blasted uniform belt... She really, REALLY hated the Shadow uniform. If it weren't for the stupid getup she could have just sucked out the guy's soul or stabbed him in the face or something. Instead she had to resort to petty punches, and then get fucking ELECTROCUTED by one of the asshole's trick arrows.

_'Oh, how the turn tables,'_ she thought to herself, writhing in pain as the arrow asshole stood up. What was he even doing, making small talk? The alarm bells went off around them as he shot an arrow into the distance, and Keres grinned. Someone was going to _pay_.

Or at least that's what she'd thought. But somehow they didn't, and the two annoying assholes got to live another day AND blow up half of the island. Assholes. Keres was still lying immobile when Sensei and some other subordinate guy came in, the one-eyed laser lackey checking something on the computer.

"Massacre, get up," Sensei commanded. Keres forced herself up despite the pain; no one disobeyed Sensei. He turned to the other guy. "Well?" There was a pause, and the other guy looked up from the computer.

"She finished it. We're good to go." Everyone grinned; maybe Keres had been right after all.

.:)$(:.

Mount Justice

August 8, 09:58 EDT

[Day 5]

Everyone was entirely too bright. Someone had thought it would be a good idea to go outside the cave and hit the beach, and someone else had agreed, and someone else had managed to rope me into it without really giving me the option to refuse.

It was fine, I guess? I wouldn't be able to go into the water, and that was fine. At least Danielle would be able to enjoy herself.

"Hello, Megan!" the Martian shouted, pointing out into the nothingness. "We should hit the beach every day!"

_'Sure, sure, because sand in your everywhere is such a pleasurable experience.'_

"First," Robin cut in, "a moment of silence for our… absent comrade."

"Poor Wally..." I smirked in amusement at Megan's comment; poor Wally indeed.

The moment of silence barely lasted a second, and the team rushed to the water for their happy fun times. Danielle was a bit slower, which was understandable; neither of us knew how to swim. But she went to splash around in the shallows with the rest of them, leaving me to sit with just my feet where the waves could wash over them.

I had purposely sat away from everyone else because for some reason being at the beach means people have to wearing less clothing than usual. I had taken precautions– long sleeved everything and some sunscreen– but I had decided to take off my gloves for once and at least soak my toes. If anyone fell on me they'd be in trouble, and I didn't want that to happen.

Hours passed and the "fun" continued. I actually sat on a towel, which was the best decision I had ever made, and the rest of the team left the ocean to make some food, which were the best hot dogs I had ever tasted. I don't think I really showed my gratitude, though… I was staring out at where the ocean was, brooding.

Danielle sat with me when the food was done, and she watched the others play some kind of sport thing, volleyball? It was something. I listened to the thwack! of the ball, enjoying the unique sound.

Volleyball got tiring and they went back into the water, and then following that they decided to bury Superboy in the sand, which was incredibly interesting to watch. The pile of sand was taller than me while sitting, and I watched from a few yards away as Superboy's black glow shined through the little granules in the prettiest way. The rest of their auras reflected off of the pile, giving a pretty pretty shine to the sand. It was definitely my favorite part of the day, aside from going back inside to the air conditioning.

I don't think anyone was expecting what was waiting for us; an announcement over the intercom let us know to suit up and meet in the atrium. Everyone was expecting a mission, but instead we found two someone's with auras that were similar shades of green.

The taller of the two I had seen before. Green Arrow was a lighter green, more lighthearted and casual. The other person gave off the impression of being very family oriented, very nervous, and a bit uptight. I kept my eye on them, trying to analyze them until someone explained something.

Before anyone could even begin to speak, the sound of the zeta beam echoed through the room.

**_"Recognized; Kid Flash B03."_**

"The Wall-Man is HERE!" he shouted, upbeat music coming from his direction. "Now let's get this party STAR–" I'm not sure how but Wally fell down, dropping all of his stuff and sending things sliding and bouncing all over the cave. There was a distant _thwump_, _thwump_ of a something bouncing over Batman's head, and I got somewhat extremely distracted trying to figure out what and where it was. Wally sighed.

"–ted..."

"Wall-Man, huh?" the new person chimed in. I snapped back to look at her, probably a her. Her(?) voice was nice. "I love the uniform. What exactly are your powers?"

_'Ohh, a sense of humor! I think I like you.' _

"Uhh, who's this?" Wally asked, standing up and moving to stand next to the other Primaries.

"Artemis, your new teammate."

.:)$(:.

**Hey! Just a note, bits of the prologue were edited before I posted this because I decided it didn't all make sense... Nothing major! **


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